


Pygmalion

by LambentLaments



Series: Pygmalion 'verse [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Cadaver!NIco, M/M, Med Student!Will, Mortal AU with supernatural elements, Necrophilia, bit of body horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-05 13:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 24,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4181736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LambentLaments/pseuds/LambentLaments
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will was not a weirdo. So what if he kept dreaming about the dead boy- the dead boy he was supposed to be dissecting? It was probably just stress.<br/>...Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to write something for the Solangelo Anthology, but then I had too much fun and the fic got much too long.  
> I tried to keep my facts straight (I asked a family member, who's an M.D, about his experience), but I probably still got a lot of them wrong, sorry about that in advance.

“You do it.”

“No, you do it.”

“Shut up, you two, I’ll do it.”

Will gave Kayla an apologetic smile, but she only brushed past her lab mate to the head of the body bag lying on the table. With a forced nonchalance that was almost as ridiculous as the gigglish excitement of Will’s two friends, she zipped it open.

“Huh,” said Cecil next to him, voice suddenly much softer.

Will had been readying himself for the initial shock of coming face to face with a dead, naked body. But he’d been expecting a little old lady, judging by the size of their body bag. He had not been expecting a boy. A boy with tousled dark hair and a small, pointed face.

“He looks bare 16.” Lou Ellen said, and Will could tell she was just as shaken as he was.

“No, all the cadavers are over legal age,” said Austin, one of the lab instructors, overhearing. He peered across from the table next to theirs, where a beer-bellied, half-bald cadaver lay. “He does look young. He must have been embalmed quickly, before there was much dehydration.”

Just before, as all the students had bowed their heads and offered a minute of silence to the cadavers, Will had felt only thrumming anticipation. Looking at the body, however, he was now keenly aware of what he’s about to do, that is, cut open a dead person.

The cadaver’s heavy black eyebrows were pinched, and his mouth was turned down in a slight frown, as if he were confused as to what he was doing here. His eyes weren’t quite closed, but his eyelashes were impossibly thick, and Will couldn’t tell what color his eyes were. Will could almost imagine that the cadaver was peeking up at someone shyly.

All in all, the boy (Will could not quite help himself from thinking of the cadaver as a ‘boy’, whatever his real age was) reminded Will of a band’s bass player he’d had a slight crush on in high school, though he wasn’t as tall or as inked.

In fact, his whole body was smooth and unmarred. The four of them that were assigned to table 13 stood inspecting him, not touching, but watching with a silent kind of awe. The boy’s fingernails were a shade of dark red, almost blue, and were cut short. His hands were half closed in a fist, and Will suddenly had the crazy urge to straighten out the fingers and hold them in his hands, to feel death inside of him.

He pushed out the thought, and tried look through a clinical eye. The hair on the boy were unexpectedly jarring, as if Will had unconsciously associated dead bodies with a Tim Burtonish sleekness. There was something disconcerting about seeing a happy trail-, no, abdominal hair, sagittal pattern, on a dead body.

But despite all that and the grey and yellow coloring, there was a precarious tranquility about the cadaver, a sort of frozen vitality that reminded him, more than anything, of marble statues. Though the boy was thin and not very muscular, Will could very much believe that the boy was one of Praxiteles’s Greek heroes. In fact, the boy was beau-

“Let us now prepare for the first incision,” said Prof. Brunner’s voice reverberated through the speakers, cutting off Will’s stupid, stupid thoughts. “Mark along the sternum to the last true rib.”

Cecil followed suit with a magic marker, trying not to let his hands touch the body, as he’d forgotten to wear gloves. He saw Kayla picking up a scalpel.

“Um, can I try first?” Will said.

Maybe it was all the lectures about respecting the cadavers he’d received with the rest of the first years but the prospect of letting the boy be touched by someone else made something catch in his throat. He wouldn’t go so far as to say that it felt like desecration, but it certainly felt akin to it.

“Sure,” Kayla said, sounding more glad than she’d probably wanted to let on.

She handed him the scalpel, and he went to stand near the torso. He tried to think of the instructions he’d learned on how to use the various tools; the scalpel, the scissors, the probe and forceps, but as he reached down to make the first cut, all he could think about was how, looking close up, the boy could have been sleeping.

The blade touched the marked skin. Will blinked. For a second, he’d imagined a glint from the boy’s eyes.

“Oh, we forgot to cover him up,” Lou Ellen exclaimed.

“I feel like a surgeon.” Cecil said, pulling out the drape.

With the rest of the body covered up, it was easier to slice the leathery skin. The skin was more unyielding than he’d anticipated, but the extra effort it took to cut made his hand look decisive and steady.

After the first incision, all four of them, with tweezer and scalpel in each hand, peeled the skin of either side of the chest.

Will looked up, after they’d identified the subcutaneous fat. The whole of the lab, which had previously been buzzing with excitement, was quiet with the students speaking in muted tones, and the atmosphere felt almost sacred.

He had a feeling they weren’t in pre-med anymore.

 

===

It took a week, that is, additional three sessions for Will to be able to hold forceps and scissors the correct way. Afterwards, taking notes in other classes, a ghost of a metal ring would occasionally linger over his fourth finger, and he would smell, all of a sudden, the stinging stench of embalming liquids.

But mostly he’d remember the boy of table 13. In daylight, he’d attempt to justify his recurring daydreams, but just before bed, with such inhabitations gone, he’d make his body go extra still just before sleeping, and imagine a cold slab beneath him.

The other med students, however, did not seem to share the sentiment. The nervous reverence all but disappeared from the lab as the month progressed, reading materials piled up and the cadavers looked more and more like gutted pigs.

“How about Tony? He looks like a Tony.” Cecil said. They were three weeks into Anatomy, and working on the pelvic organs.

“I think he looks more like a Nat,” mused Kayla, her hands on the bladder and her eyes on a textbook.

Lou Ellen snorted. “I’m just glad he’s not a Natalie. I’d hate to have to deal with fallopian tubes atop off these.”

“Will you guys shut up.”

Lou flinched, and the other two gave Will weary glances. Will’s cheeks burned. He hadn’t meant to shout.

“I’m sorry. I mean”, He glanced down at the cadaver’s abdominal cavity. “We should treat the body like a specimen, but it’s not a toy.”

They muttered it was all right, but when it was time for lunch, Kayla didn’t want to join them.

Will lingered, not wanting to leave things sore with his roommate but not wanting to apologize more than necessary either.

“I’ll stay back and review.” Kayla gave him a shrug. “For the test, you know.”

Will joined his two friends in the cafeteria. “Do you think-“

“Nah,” said Cecil quickly. “I think we’re all just nervous about the test today.” He dropped a piece of chicken on his textbook, and tried to wipe off the Caesar dressing from the page.

They’d all brought their textbooks. At this point mere pictures of intestines did little to curb their appetites.

“It’s just… don’t you wonder what kind of person he was? Not just how he died, or whatever. He’s…“ Will paused, trying to remember the boy’s face, but after weeks of keeping it covered, he had trouble bringing all the details to mind. He did remember somewhat better the boy’s lithe muscles, and how he’d cut them open to reveal the ligaments like some anti-sculptor, warping and destroying instead of creating. “It’s sad, you know?” He finished lamely.

Cecil grunted, not looking up from his book. They had had many similar conversations weeks prior.

But Lou was looking at him a bit strangely.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just, be careful, okay?”

Will opened his mouth to ask what she meant, but she only looked back to her book, apparently immersed with the contents.

It was a relief to get the test over with. This was the first one that involved tagging the cadavers, and the time limit drove his brain to a frenzy. Will hadn’t known how strung up he’d been until he immerged from lab completely drained.

“What was the answer to question 6?” Lou Ellen asked, catching up on Cecil and him.

“Umm. Was that the one about maxillary sinuses, or the perito-“

“Shut up, shut up shut up.” Cecil said, blocking his ears with his hands. “I don’t want to hear anything that sounds remotely Latin for the next-,” he looked at his watch. “42 hours and twenty minutes.”

Lou Ellen stretched. “I am not getting out of bed for the next two days. I am serious. I’m buying adult diapers and everything.”

“You do that. I’m going to get wasted, get laid, and puke my guts out,” said Cecil, with more gravitas than the situation warranted. “Not necessarily in that order.”

Will grinned. “Sounds like a plan. Can I join you?”

“Not for the getting laid part, but for the rest? Absolutely.”

As it happened, Will’s evening and next morning did play out ‘in that order’, though considering, it probably wasn’t his fault he didn’t heed Lou’s warning.

He woke up the next day on an unfamiliar bed. But that wasn’t what turned his stomach 15 seconds later. It was the fact that he was lying next to a thin, pale, black haired, and definitely naked man.

Staring up at the ceiling he whispered, “I am so screwed.”

And then he threw up on the stranger’s floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's not Nico. That's just someone that resembles him that Will picked up in a bar. Will didn't sleep with a gutted corpse, he's just grossed out cuz the guy is proof he has a crush on his cadaver (which he's been denying till now). 
> 
> Just thought I'd explain; some of you mentioned it was confusing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Squishy body horror in this chapter.

Even on waking, it was easy to see the similarities between the man next to him and Will’s dead boy. On closer inspection, however, the finer details were off. The stranger’s lips were fuller, his chin rounder, his cheekbones less pronounced. The dissimilarity was more pronounced from the neck down. Will knew the boy’s body down to its various cysts by now, and the boy certainly didn’t have freckled shoulders or nipple rings. He’d possibly have found even more differences upon the stranger waking, but Will legged it before the stranger could throw him out.

Will could not remember much of what had transpired the night before except for flashes of pleasure that twisted his guts in retrospect, but it was still much too obvious what had been going on in his mind when he’d picked up the stranger. His only condolence was that the knowledge of his depravity was his alone; Cecil had been too juiced to remember anything either.

The only remotely good thing that came out of his one night stand was that the incident was enough of a shock treatment to actively discourage further daydreams he might have had of cadaver 13. His actual dreams, however, proved less controllable. In the weeks following, he more often than not woke up with the image of a black-haired boy twisting in pain as Will’s scalpel tore through warm, supple skin, or much worse, of the boy writhing from a completely different sensation.

It was the day after one such morning that Professor Brunner made the announcement.

“Uh, Will? Will?” He looked up from the spinal cord he was inspecting to register Kayla nudging him with her elbow. Everyone had stopped to listen to Brunner.

“What are you thinking of?” Kayla asked, curious, but Will didn’t answer. As if he could tell anyone about his dreams. He turned to listen to Brunner instead, to have the professor’s words fill his stomach with a dead weight. He’d known about the curriculum, that they’d move onto the face and neck six weeks into the class, but hearing it suddenly seemed all so abrupt.

The students filed out, talking excitedly amongst themselves. The facial muscles and the brain were particularly important parts to dissect, and Brunner had advised them to study their materials beforehand.

“Will, you coming?” Cecil asked, starting to walk away then realizing Will was still standing at the table.

“I think I want to review,” said Will. “I wasn’t really concentrating today, I might have missed a few stuff.”

To his inexplicable relief, his lab mates seemed appeased at his explanation and left him.

As it was Friday, there weren’t as many students reviewing as there normally were, but a couple other students had stayed behind as well.

Will tried to stay on track. He really did. Spreading out all the material from this week, he organized them into a sort of crude list, and then proceeded to mentally check off all the things he’d learned, trying to make his eyes stop flicking back to the sheet covering the boy’s face.

But then those two other students had to leave for dinner.

Will swallowed as the door closed. He shouldn’t, really he shouldn’t be this infatuated with a frickin dead body, a dead body he’d spent over a month gutting out. He looked down at the cadaver’s bloated hand. It didn’t even have skin anymore.

They had been nice hands.

No, no, no, he wasn’t having these… thoughts.

But really, he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was just looking. So what if he felt… uncomfortable with the prospect of cutting out the boy’s face? That was natural. Anyone would feel weird cutting up a human face, especially a face as nice as this o-

Dammit, Will.

He could leave now. In fact he should. But then the last he’d see of the boy’s face would be Lou opening it up. The thought made his breath catch, like that time when he’d seen on a news footage, terrorists blowing up a three thousand year old arch in the middle east.

All right, he’d just have a peek. Only so that it wouldn’t catch him off guard next week. Brunner had said to prepare. He’d prepare, look at his textbook for the corresponding muscles on his cadaver and such. Purely professional.

He pulled off the cloth covering the cadaver’s face. There was a soft sound, and it took him a second to realize it was himself letting out a breath.

He had forgotten the boy’s face, and the dreams he’d had were poor facsimiles of the original. It was… perfect, really. If he’d been an artist, he’d have tried to recreate the boy’s face in everything from charcoals to oil paintings. If he’d been anything of a writer, he’d have written out long, winding sonnets. He could stare into this face forever.

And he was going to have to cut it out.

If there was one thing that marred the boy’s face, it was the frown. Will lowered his hand to touch the brows, then stopped to pull off his gloves. It wouldn’t do to taint his face. He smoothed out the crease between the brows, then moved onto his mouth, slightly uplifting the ends.

There. The boy now looked completely serene.

Will’s hand was still on the boy’s lips. And somehow, just somehow, Will couldn’t look away.

One time, when Will was seven or so, he’d been playing in his front yard when he’d seen the neighbor’s dog, a cocker spaniel named Minty, run in front of a car. He could never remember what had happened between that moment and the next, when he’d woken in a hospital bed with both his legs fractured.

All he could recall was an inrushing red flood in his ears, like television static, only a hundredfold, that had knocked out all thought from his mind and overrode his pre-frontal lobe with an uncontrollable, titanic force…

He did not remember stooping down to the boy or his hand moving to caress his jaw. All he knew was that suddenly, his lips were touching cold, hard skin.

He sprang up, even before his brain started functioning again. He stumbled to the end of the table to the sink and started retching, though nothing came from his empty stomach. The smell of formaldehyde and decay was on his lips and in his sinuses.

He was… he’d just…

That didn’t just happen. Stuff like that, that was the kind of thing crazy old drunks that lived alone in trailers and shot at everyone did. When they were high. People like him didn’t do sick stuff like that, he was…

Will closed his eyes, because he could see the cadaver’s gaping cavity, showing its spines and nerves. But even when he did so, he could see in his mind’s eye, the skinless arms and legs, their joints showing from their experimenting.

He retched into the sink again, and this time coughed up a bitter mouthful of bile.

“You should drink some water.”

“Yeah I was about t-“ Will froze.

Someone had seen him. He was going to get kicked out. He was going to get sent to a mental institution with pedophiles and goat fuckers. Wishing he could just die here on this spot and replace one of the cadavers, he opened his eyes.

There was no one there.

Tentatively he walked towards the front row tables and even looked under the tables. Nada. In the spirit of all anatomy classes, the lab was situated in the darkest, most unfrequented corner of the building, and Will felt for the first time how creepy this place really was.

He walked backwards to his table where, ironically, he felt most safe. He put his back to the table and searched for a movement from some stalker or serial killer.

A tap in the back. “Hey, help me up.”

Will swung around and came face to face with the cadaver’s open eyes.

He screamed. He flailed backwards and crashed into the next table, upending the tools and organs and then falling on his butt. He grappled with fingers that refused to move, trying to find something to defend himself. His fingers got hold of something. It was a pancreas.

He dropped it, but that meant there was nothing between him, and that, that thing. His legs were doing a weird scrabbly thing that got him nowhere because his back was to the table bottom, and oh dear god, the head was turning to look at him.

The cadaver raised an eyebrow in amusement. Will faintly registered that his own mouth was half open, but he was frozen except for the violent tremors that rocked his body. Try as he might he could not look away from the cadaver.

“Hey, are you okay?”

How was the body speaking? It had no lung, they’d taken them out last week. Will watched the hollow cavity of the cadaver’s chest in horror.

The cadaver followed Will’s gaze and only then seemed to realize that it was missing all its major and minor organs. “Huh,” he said, sounding vaguely interested. “That’s a first.” It flexed its arms in a windmill motion, and setting its palms on the table, pushed itself up. Then he folded completely in half.

Will’s mouth opened in a scream, but no sound came out. There was a fuzzy red outline to his thoughts as his sanity started to fray. Disconnected to the spine, the back muscles had collapsed, folding in the manner of a leather purse, unable to support the weight of the head. The cadaver’s shoulder’s had dropped almost to the surface of the table, and its head was in the pelvic cavity.

Then the human origami unfolded. “I’m okay,” the cadaver said, waving a hand.

Will could see, through the cavity, the spine and muscles rearranging and reattaching themselves. They squirmed like little maggots, slipping into their proper places.

That wasn’t all that was happening. A dripping sound came near his feet, and Will tore his eyes away to see a murky yellow-brown liquid dripping to the floor, where it had leaked out of the cadaver’s conveniently numerous holes.

“This is a pretty cool color. What’s this one?”

Will looked up again. The cadaver was poking at his gallbladder, which was, along with its neighbors, blossoming in his stomach like some fast rewind video footage of a growing fruit. Unlike the one they’d taken out, which had been olive green, this one was a healthy shade of robin-blue.

Will fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The supernatural elements in this story are silly and illogical, and I know it. I'd meant the story to be a sort of tongue-in-cheek, fairy tale-slash-gothic horror thingamabob in a modern setting.
> 
> Also, I can't get the tag to stop saying cadaver!NIco. What is with that capital letter? Does anyone know why?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many mentions of mental illness.

Poke. “Hey.”

Will squirmed, not wanting to wake up.

Another poke.

His brain came online and Will opened his eyes, to meet a pair of black eyes two inches from his face.

Will tried to stand, hit his head on the tabletop, almost lost consciousness again, then backpedaled away from the figure, still sitting.

“Hi. I’m Nico.”

Will stared at the naked figure crouching in front of him. Naked, and very much whole.

“I thought I’d let you sleep, but then I felt a bit peckish, and then I figured you’d be hungry, too. You know, with all that throwing up you did just before now.”

Will continued to stare, and the boy started to look concerned.

Okay, so he was hallucinating. He was probably rolling around in an empty lab right now.

He looked up at the lab table. It looked empty, but that was the point about hallucinations, he couldn’t trust them. The cadaver must be there, whatever he was seeing, safe and sound and dead.

The boy waved his hand in front of his face. “Hey, did you hurt your head or something?”

Will reached out and held the boy’s hand. It was cold, but not dead cold, and soft to the touch.

So tactile hallucinations on top of visual and auditory ones. Interesting. Likely triggered by guilt and stress. Schizophrenia? Possibly. His age, 22, corresponded to most statistics.

He knew he should be more concerned, but the boy, looking down at his grasped hand, blushed, and oh, looked up through his lashes, and Will sort of forgot that mental illnesses were a bad thing.

Will cleared his throat. “So, what do you want to eat?”

 

===

 

People veered off from them on the streets.

“I smell like shit, don’t I?” asked the boy, or Nico, as he’d introduced himself, as a couple three feet away from them suddenly opted to jaywalk across the street.

“Err… That might have happened when we palpated the gluteal muscles. But it’s okay, it happens to everyone. Everyone dead, I mean.” Will whispered. “And it’s not you, it’s me.” He’d given the boy his change of clothes and was wearing his scrubs, which meant a lot of mysterious stains. At least Nico looked adorable in oversized jeans and shirt. Standing up, the boy was actually even shorter than he’d looked to be on that lab table.

“Oh,” Nico whispered back, then paused. “Why are we whispering?”

“I don’t want anyone I know to see me talking to myself. Involuntary hospitalizations are always worse off.”

“O…kay?” He sounded confused, but Nico didn’t talk to him again until they reached McDonalds.

Will wasn’t as much of a health food advocate as Cecil often made him out to be, but he still made it a point to avoid fast foods. It came as a surprise, therefore, that his hallucination requested a happy meal. It was probably a manifestation of some repressed desire. Or possibly his subconscious had taken into consideration that his wallet’s contents amounted to 12 dollars and a debit card to a negative account.

Will watched as Nico inspected the toy with a critical eye, deemed it ‘okay’, then peeled off a tin foil lid and licked off the apple sauce. It was surreal how lifelike his hallucination was. Will had never considered himself to have artistic sensibilities, but the fact that his brain could reconstruct something so beautiful made him wonder if he’d just been unmotivated. Nico moved with a flowing grace, and the way his muscles moved was an education unto itself.

Nico looked up to see him staring. Whoa, Nico’s eyes were really dark. He’d always imagined them a lighter shade of brown, this suited him better. “So…you’re a doctor?”

This corner of the McDonald’s was empty save for themselves, and even if it hadn’t been, Will figured nobody here would care if he was talking to himself anyway. “Nope, I’m a med student.”

Nico nodded, “Oh. I did think the flip-flops were a bit weird.”

“Seriously? You think my _flip-flops_ are weird?” Nico shrugged.

“So, death boy, what are you, then?” He probably shouldn’t indulge his own madness, but he was already here buying fast food for a figment of his imagination, so what the heck. Might as well have descriptive material for his psychiatrist.

His eyes flashed. “Do _not_ call me death boy!” He calmed down in a second, looking a bit angry at his own outburst. “I’m Undead.”

“Oh, really? Because I had no idea.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “I’m Undead, as in with a capital U. It’s an umbrella term in the supernatural community for the… uh existentially challenged. You know, zombies, vampires, werewolves, mummies, ghouls- the whole package, but ‘Undead’ is more PC.”

“So which one are you?”

“I’m usually not open enough to come out to someone I’ve met today, but…” He grinned, showing extended eyeteeth and a few too many teeth. And also bits of chicken nugget.

That was surprising. He didn’t think he’d had a thing for vampires. Or maybe his subconscious just thought they were more attractive than zombies. He’d have to ask his psychiatrist later. “What were you doing then, posing as a dead body?’

“I _was_ dead. Some religious fanatic slipped holy water in my drink.” He huffed in annoyance.

“And you woke up because…? How? How did you do the whole…regenerating thing?”

“Uh. Magic.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Well, I could tell you that I’m host to a genetically modified phylum of bacteria that boosts cell division, and the promoter of their operon codes are initiated through pathogens in the human saliva?”

Will considered it. “Is it true?”

Nico swallowed his chicken nugget. “Of course not. I just like sci-fi.”

“Shouldn’t you like, gothic horrors or whatever?”

Nico snorted. “That’s like saying you should only watch medical dramas. Urgh, I hate those shows.”

“Hey.” He liked ER. Thirteen year old Will had had many fantasies concerning George Clooney in a lab coat. “Why not?”

“Too much bl-, bl-, bloo-“ He swallowed. “You know.”

“Blood?”

Nico hissed, and Will saw, for a split second, a hungry look in the boy’s eyes that sent flight instincts straight to his hindbrain, and he understood why someone would try to kill the boy. “Yeah, that. Just throw that around. What are you doing, trying to make me fall off the wagon? I’ve been sober for years.”

That was good to hear, though it was suddenly much more disconcerting to see Nico sucking on his straw. Could he be killed by his own hallucination? Did that count as suicide?

“Wait. But why would a vampire be reincarnated by a kiss?”

“Well, a drop of human blood would have just as well. In fact that’s how I was woken up all the times I died. This was a first for me, too. But really, it doesn’t really matter; blood, a kiss, a teardrop, a heartfelt hug. It’s all symbolic, you see. We can’t really die like for real, so when we die, it’s like we’re on the edge, just waiting for a tinny unbalance to call us back in. As long as it’s a physical representation of vitality and human desire, it’ll work.”

“Wow.”

“I know. I got that off a pamphlet, by the way. I’d probably know more if I went to group discussions or joined a support group like the committee suggested, but some of the younger Undeads were annoying. Posers, the lot of them.”

“But… you’re vampires. You guys are the embodiment of Goth culture. How would you guys be posers?”

“You know, getting sprayed tans, bleaching their hair, trying to surf, wearing colors, smiling too much, that kind of thing. Posers. Some of the werewolf kids even get laser hair removal. Urgh.”

“I know, trying to look human. So gross, isn’t it,” said Will, who was tan, blond, surfed, wore colors, and definitely smiled a lot. Nico nodded, either not noticing or purposefully ignoring the sarcasm.

“Oh, wait,” Will said, who’d hit a lightbulb moment. “Was Snow White a vampire? Was Sleeping Beauty?” He gasped. “Are they still alive?”

“It’s confidential.”

“Oh.”

Nico laughed. It was a weird, spluttering kind of sound. In a way it was a childish kind of laughter in that it was purely candid; it was a laughter laughed by someone whose actions hadn’t been regulated by social encounters, someone who’d had little experience of laughing with people. “I’m kidding! I’ve always wanted to say that. I honestly don’t know. It sounds plausible, though.”

What Will had asked made sense, he supposed. He’d been driven by an instinct to save his cadaver ever since he’d seen it. His subconscious must have reconstructed that desire to portray him as sort of a knight in shining armor, and the boy as a princess waiting to be rescued. If he thought about it, the image of the boy lying on a lab table wasn’t all that different from Snow White in her glass coffin or Sleeping Beauty on her bed. It was surprising how insanity made so much sense. Maybe he should consider being a shrink himself. He still might be able to finish school, if he got stabilized with antipsychotics.

Will thought through all the stuff Nico had told him. He’d heard speculations about how Philip K. Dick was actually schizophrenic. Maybe he should write all this stuff down and try to sell it. It couldn’t be worse than Twilight.

“Do you sparkle?” He said, jokingly.

Nico finished off the last of the nuggets. “Yup.”

“Err…seriously?”

“Not me, personally, but apparently the fresh ones do, the ones turned after those stupid books and movies came out. They sparkle, just before they suffer massive burns and then burn to ashes like the rest of us. Don’t be surprised,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Sparkling’s not as ridiculous as us being killed by rosaries and crucifixes, or us turning into bats. We basically embody every concept, every cliché humans have of us. If a bunch of you guys started believing we could turn into pink elephants, the next generation of the Undead will be able to do that.”

Wow, that was just crazy talk. Will nodded anyway. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed and spread the propaganda, then.”

“Yeah.” He coughed. “So if you’re done with the twenty questions, there was something I wanted to ask you.” Nico looked a bit nervous. “You know how you woke me up-“

Will’s phone rang at that moment. He picked it up to hang up, but Nico, turning a bit red, motioned for him to get it.

It was a brief call, but for some reason he could see Nico’s face hardening as he talked over the phone.

“That was Kayla.” He explained, ending the call. “She’s ordering pizza at our apartment and she wanted to know if I was going to be there.”

“Oh,” Nico said. His face was a set mask. He stood up abruptly with his tray. “You should go then.”

“No, that’s all right, I’m-“

He turned and walked quickly to the tray return. “So, I’ll try to give your clothes back to you, after I wash them. It’ll be a while until I can, though, sorry about that.”

“That’s okay.” Will said, bewildered. If his hallucination was bi-polar, did it mean he was, too? “I can wash them myself. Our washing machine can, anyway.”

For some reason, Nico’s face fell for a second at his words, then regained its coldness. He continued towards the exit in the same brisk manner. “Thanks. I’d like to pay you back for the meal, but I’m afraid that would take some time too.”

Will caught up with him outside the building. “You don’t have to pay me back, you ate a happy meal.”

“Okay then.” Under the streetlights, Nico’s face was garish. “Thanks for… everything. I really do. I won’t forget it.”

“Wait, you’re leaving?”

Nico’s mask crumpled, and he started to look angry. “Yeah.”

“But...do you have a place to stay? You said, sunlight...”

“I can manage.”

“But…” Why was he trying to stop Nico leaving? Wasn’t this supposed to go the other way, hallucinations not leaving patients alone, whatever they tried? He should let him go, and end this as a single psychotic episode.

But he’d been dreaming about Nico for so long, he felt as if he were being cheated. He couldn’t believe he held his own sanity at such low value, but letting Nico go off with a frown on his face seemed inconceivable to him.

“I don’t want your pity. I’m not making the same mistake again, I…” Nico turned his face away. “You should go back to your girlfriend.”

Will blinked. Then started laughing. Did that really just happen? He’d thought this sort of thing only happened in romantic comedies and romance novels. And also fanfics.

Nico looked dumbstruck, and then boiling mad, almost on the verge of tears.

“I’m not laughing at you.” Will said, chortling. “Okay, actually I am, but-“ He put a hand on Nico’s shoulder, and didn’t remove it even when Nico glared daggers at it. “Just because I’m living with a girl you thought… Kayla is my roommate.”

“Oh.” Nico was trying to keep his face passive, but he couldn’t help his face reddening, or the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.

“Yeah. She’s my lab mate, too. Or should I not mention that? All that must have been traumatic for you? Well me, too, but maybe you don’t want to hear about that?”

“Err, no, that’s all right. So… you’re not…oh.”

For a hallucination, Nico was confusingly unintuitive. He’d thought hallucinations would know his innermost secrets or whatever, what with being an extension of his subconscious.

A seed of doubt suddenly entered his mind, but he would not chase it. It wasn’t completely correct, the widely known adage that ‘crazy people don’t know they’re crazy’, but a professor had once said in a half-joking manner that the first step to treating psychotic disorders was having the patient admit that their reality may be delusional. He’d been lucky, in some way, to recognize the symptoms of an impending psychotic breakout before it became full-blown, but most people’s descent into psychosis was much faster than they could recognize. The minute he began to entertain the thought that Nico might be real would be a step into the irreversible.

“I thought you’d be sticking with me,” Will said. “For at least three days, that is. I’m going to make an appointment with a shrink for Monday, and I don’t know how the drugs or therapy would turn out, but obviously he’s not going to be happy with me talking to you. But I thought I could indulge myself for three days.”

Nico looked utterly confused.

“You obviously can’t sleep on the couch because Kayla can’t see me talking to you, but you could take my bed.”

“You want me to stay? At your place?” He still looked bewildered, but a bit hopeful as well.

“Uh, yeah? If you want to, that is.”

“Yeah I… But why?”

Will didn’t know why his hallucination was being so stupid. He’d have expected better of his subconscious. “Because when a prince rescues the princess, they go live in the castle happily ever after.”

Nico still looked doubtful, as if he thought he was being tricked, but he was also biting his cheek so as not to smile. “Why am I the princess?”

“Okay, then you be the prince. Or better yet, you be the king.” He offered an elbow in a regal fashion. “Let’s get you home, ghost king, you stink.”

Nico tentatively laid his hand to the crook of Will’s arm. Tactile hallucination or not, Will loved it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! This was supposed to be the end of this fic. In fact, if you're like me and enjoy ambiguous endings or have sadistic tendencies towards your favorite characters, I advise you leave things off here and wonder forever if Will really is having a psychotic episode.  
> But then I realized I love you guys too much to do that, so yeah, there will be more chapters. 
> 
> Also if you have any prompts or questions or whatever feel free to tell me in the comment box.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Too much exposition, I know. Dammit.

Will’s apartment was dark when Will opened the door. He entered, fumbled for the switch, and turned on the lights. When he looked back, Nico was still standing outside the door.

Will motioned for him to come in, but Nico said, “You have to invite me into the threshold.”

“Oh. Yeah, sure, come-.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Nico said, cutting in. “I hurt people. Not even always physically. I don’t mean to, but it happens.” His face was set, as it’d been back at McDonald’s, but now he looked more determined then upset. “This is about the power of your free-will. This, your house,” he said, gesturing towards the door frame. “It signifies more than that. Once you let me into your life, you can’t just eject me from it, however both of us may try.”

Will thought. Then found he didn’t need to. “You can come in. I want you to come in.”

Nico studied him for a second, and then walked in. “That was a very serious thing you just did, you know that?” There was definitely something of an animal of prey in the way Nico walked. Will felt a shiver crawl down his neck, but he could also see Nico was watching him carefully, as if testing him.

“I trust you.”

Whatever it was Nico had been expecting of him, that must not have been it. He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Nico’s face held a trace of a smile. “It’s just… I once asked a guy if he trusted me, and he… Well, never mind.”

Will didn’t know what to make of that, so he only smiled back and looked down to the counter where Kayla had left a note.

_Out with L &C since u wont be here + Ur turn 2 do dishes_

“Kayla’s out. My roommate Kayla, not my non-existent girlfriend Kayla.”

Nico blushed. “Wouldn’t she freak out when she sees me?”

“Angel, that’s the least of my worries.”

Nico blushed even harder at the diminutive, and Will gave himself a virtual pet on the head. He’d been thinking it ever since he learned Nico’s surname, and it’d popped out seeing Nico standing there, looking like an embarrassed school boy.

Now that he thought about it, it was rather disconcerting that his hallucination looked even younger than he did as a cadaver. Will had, given the choice, always been one to choose twinks over bears, but knowing that he knew he would subconsciously prefer a younger boy gave him a different perspective to the matter of his taste.

He led Nico into his room to find a fresh pair of clothes for him, and handed him a pair of boxers, a black t-shirt rarely worn, and old PJ bottoms. When Nico left for the bathroom, he filched the throw from the sofa and a blanket from the bed and spread them out the space next to the bed.

“Uh, Will?”

He looked out to see Nico poking his head out from the bathroom door.

“You don’t have a bathtub.”

“No, we don’t?”

“Um, I can’t shower.”

“Oh, because vampires couldn’t cross running water unless someone carries them, right?

Nico nodded, and they opened their mouth at the same time.

“Should I wash you, then?” “Do you have a basin I can use?”

Nico turned red, but not as red as Will probably was.

“Yeah, that’s probably unnecessary,” Nico said. At least Will was half sure Nico sounded a tinge regretful.

Will found a large mixing bowl that neither Kayla nor he had ever used from underneath the sink. Nico was hiding behind the door when he went to hand it to him. They were both aware it was entirely unnecessary; Will had seen him naked for too many hours to count. By now he was able to draw out every crevice of his body in his mind. Which, he supposed, actually was what he was doing.

He went to his room again. He had large airy windows that let in a good deal of light despite his apartment being adjacent to another building. In fact they were the reason he’d chosen this apartment in the first place, even though the price was a bit steep and the drains tended to clog up. He would have to cover them up. He had window blinds, not curtains, that served to cover the view from the opposite building, but did little to block out the light.

Nico came in as he was finishing taping cut up cardboard boxes to the window panes.

“You sleep during the day, right?” Will asked, stepping back to study his work.

“Doesn’t matter as long it’s dark.” Nico said. “In fact I’m kinda sleepy right now. You’d think I wouldn’t be, when I was dead all this time, but reincarnation’s more demanding than it looks, you know.”

“I’m sure it is,” Will chuckled.

Nico was carrying the clothes he’d worn before. They smelled strongly of the lab, mostly of embalming fluid. Will threw them in the laundry hamper anyway, and Nico sat on the blanket on the floor.

“Take the bed.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “It’s okay, I’m obviously used to lying on hard surfaces now.”

“That’s exactly why you’re taking the bed,” Will said. “You deserve one after two months of lying on that table.”

Nico hesitantly sat on the edge of the bed. “Three.” Will had told him the date at McDonald’s, and Nico had been surprised more time hadn’t passed.

“Yeah.” Will drew up the chair from his desk and sat hugging the backrest, facing Nico. “So what happened to make you end up on that table?”

Nico wrinkled his nose. “There are always people who are trying to find the Undead. Religious people try to kill us, occults try to bring us back alive, Goth kids try to date us. I mean it’s not that hard to spot us if you’re looking for the right signs. I guess most people just think I’m a teenager going through a vampire phase or something.” He made a ‘what can you do’ sort of gesture with his hands. “A lot of people still believe in our existence. Well, anyhow, this guy that caught me, he was a total psychopath. He said he liked to experiment on pain tolerance, and that he always wanted to try stuff on someone immortal, because he wouldn’t have to find someone new with each experiment. ”

“Oh my god.”

“I know. What a waste.” Nico said, in a tone that he could think of a much better reason for killing people.

“So he got through all the normal people stuff, you know, electric shocks, mutilation, stuff like that. And when I’d die he’d just bring me back again.” He made a rising motion with his hand. “And then he decided he wanted to do Undead stuff. He had a lot of fun with sun lamps, and then he moved onto holy water. That’s when I escaped. He didn’t have any experience with Undead stuff, so when I pretended to pass out, he didn’t know any better, and I took my chance when he left.” He frowned. “I remember finding somewhere dark, and then I guess I died.”

“That’s…that’s terrible.” Will said, shocked. He’d known his own mind was fucked up, but he’d never have expected his subconscious to make up such a sadistic backstory.

Nico shrugged. With his too-big clothes, and tensed up demeanor he looked more vulnerable than ever. And younger.

“Angel, how old are you?”

“I dunno. Depends on how you ask I guess.”

“You’re like hundreds of years old, maybe?”

“Uh, no. I got turned during World War II. I don’t actually remember much of what happened before that, but that much I know.”

“How old were you then?”

“Well, I know I wasn’t old enough to be drafted.”

“So like seventeen?” Will asked, hopeful.

“I think, more like fif-“

“So you’re technically ninety something?” Will said, cutting in. One paraphilia was enough, thank you.

“Well, maybe, but I spent most of that time dead, so I don’t think it counts?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, after I was turned, my family did the right Christian thing and cut of my head, stuck silver nails into them and burnt the rest of my body. And then I spent like 70 years dead.”

“Uh, that’s kinda cold.”

Nico’s eyes flashed, and he said angrily, “No, they loved me. They were good people. They were trying to save my eternal soul.”

Okay, no badmouthing his family. “I’m sorry. Of course they were.” For a second he thought about joking about Italians and their families, but then decided not to, because, a) he really wasn’t that kind of person, b) all his family were probably dead, and c) contrary to everything that transpired today, he did not have a death wish.

Nico subsided, though he still looked sideways at him as if he thought Will was being sarcastic. “I’m sorry. I just… miss them, you know? It’s hard to imagine they’ve been dead for centuries when it still feels like a few years for me.”

“So how’d you come back?”

“Apparently my sister Bianca,” Nico closed his eyes for a second after he spoke her name, as if giving a quick silent tribute. ”Came to the US to escape the war after our mom got killed, and she brought my ashes with her. We were really close, you see, I don’t remember much of what happened before, but I remember Bianca, and I guess she wanted to bury me somewhere she could visit.

“Only, five years ago some cult tracked down records and letters, and got hold of my urn and brought me back alive.”

“You have your own cult!” Will grinned. “That’s cool.”

Nico looked sheepish. “I… don’t anymore.”

“What… oh.” His grin fell off.

“Yeah. I didn’t really have self-control then. Not like now.” He sent a pleading sort of look towards him, and Will forced himself to give him a reassuring smile.

“At least the police thought it was mass suicide. But this one religious fanatic, name of Octavian, caught wind and tracked me down. Tied me to a cross, with rosaries of all things. Read the bible to me while I burned, little shit.”

“How’d you get out of that one?” Will asked, morbidly fascinated.

Nico smirked. “Guy had a papercut.”

“What?”

Nico snorted with laughter. “I know! He scooped up a handful of my ashes to scatter to the winds and presto! I was there again.”

Will laughed. “So do I dare ask what you did to him?”

“Let’s say I had a full meal that day. And then I showed him some… poetic justice.” Then Nico looked worried again, and his hand gestures went full power from his nervousness. “I’m not going to do anything like that to you, really I won’t. I’m not like that anymore, and I try really hard.”

It was hard not to melt under that imploring look. “I believe you.”

Nico gave him a small smile, and Will thought he would give anything to never have that smile disappear. Only when Nico started looking at him quizzically did he realize he’d been staring at him too long. “Yeah, so,” he coughed. “What happened after that?”

“I lived on the streets. Well, under them, actually. By that time Octavian had chased me all the way from Washington D.C to New York, and that’s where I stayed. It’s easier to keep under the radar there, and easier to find…uh, prey. I was kind of a mess then- I was living in the sewers, living off homeless people, mostly. And then I met-“

His face turned abruptly closed-off just then, and he lifted his legs to the bed, hugging his knees.

“What is it?”

“I met other Undeads,” he said carefully, and Will doubted that was what he’d meant to say. “I turned sober, and tried to fit in, basically. Stayed in an apartment for 3, 4 years. And then I tried to leave, and got caught by that psychopath and now I’m here.”

Will was wondering how to get Nico to reveal the reason why he was being so taciturn, but then he heard the front door being shut. He froze, and so did Nico.

“Will, are you here?” Kayla called from outside.

“Yeah. I figured I’d call it a night.”

“Okay, talk to you tomorrow, then.”

“Yeah. Night, Kayla.”

He waited until he heard the door to Kayla’s room, or perhaps the bathroom, being shut. They looked at each other’s faces, both all tense, and then burst out laughing, Will first, Nico following suit, muffling the sounds with their hands, like children gotten away with mischief..

Will turned off the lights, and lying on the bed and on the floor, they talked in whispers, yet again like children. Nico was still cagy about what he’d been doing these past years, but after some questioning he was talking about Mythomagic and comic books and superhero movies, his voice getting steadily drowsy.

It wasn’t until Will asked him about Hades’ hit points and Nico failed to answer, that Will was staring at the ceiling, realizing that for the past few hours, he had failed to remind himself that Nico was not real, and more importantly, not his to keep.


	5. Chapter 5

He woke late next morning. He’d never had much need for an alarm clock, since the sun was always enough to wake him up, but his clock read nearly eleven AM in the gloom of his room. He might have slept for even longer if his back hadn’t been killing him.

Sitting up, he stretched, trying to work out the kinks in his back. He then looked to the edge of the bed where Nico was still sleeping.

It would’ve been too much of a bad pun to think Nico slept like the dead, but it was true. Will watched him, lying on his back, covers up to his neck. Except for his eyes being shut, he looked as he had on that lab table. Even his frown was there.

When he left his room Kayla was on the couch with her feet up on the coffee table, with an open textbook on her lap and watching TV.

“I made pancakes, but don’t eat them,” she said in lieu of a greeting. “They were halfway salvageable hot and burnt, but now they’re cold and burnt.”

“Got it. Thanks for the effort, though.”

He threw away several of charred pancakes, got himself a bowl of muesli, then settled next to her on the couch.

“So, did you have a good night last night?” Kayla asked after a while.

“Yeah, sure. You too?”

“Not as good as yours.” She said, smirking.

Kayla smirking was never good news. “Um. What do you mean?”

“I know you had a guy in there last night, I heard talking. Is he still there?”

“There’s no one there.” Will said with quiet panic.

“He didn’t stick around?”

“Yea- No, I mean, yeah. He left really early. I- uh, only met him yesterday.”

“He’s not a keeper, then?”

Will shook his head.

Kayla looked at him strangely. They’d both always been pretty open about bringing over guys to the apartment. “Okay, I won’t pry.”

Will went back to his muesli, wanting to say something but unable to, because what he could say couldn’t be the truth. They sat, splattering the sounds of the TV with small talk, but a distance was there, possibly hair-thin and impalpable, but still there, and Will knew he couldn’t postpone the inevitable for any longer.

When Kayla went back to her room, talking about getting her work done for real, he took out his phone and looked up in his address book, a number, that 2 months ago, he had never thought he’d have any reason to use.

Half an hour after he’d sent out a text message, his phone rang, and he retreated to the kitchen. He looked at the name on the screen for a second before answering.

_“Will, old boy!”_

“Uh, hello, Mr. Clepison.”

Ash Clepison was an old family friend and GP. His dad was especially fond of him, and Will remembered quite a few dinners in which the man had been invited. He was the sort of person that ruffled kids’ hair out of genuine affection instead of out of a lack of anything to say as most people did. He’d given Will lollipops from his pockets that Will knew he must have brought especially from his office for him, even long after Will had outgrown sweets. Will was pretty sure the man had played no so small part in his life-long dream of becoming a doctor. It was due to him that he’d come to associate medicine with a twinkle in one’s eye, and had learned that sincere concern for patients was not contradictory with academic passion.

_“So how’s med school treating you? Not too demanding, I hope?”_

“Yeah, it’s pretty hard. But nothing I didn’t expect I guess.” He cleared his throat. “Maybe I’m under more stress than I thought, though. That’s why I wanted to talk to you, I suppose.”

“ _Ah, yes, you said you wanted an appointment?”_ Clepison’s voice turned swiftly clinical, which Will was grateful for.

“Yeah. I know it’s kinda abrupt, but…” He watched Kayla’s door and lowered his voice a notch. “I’ve been seeing things. I wanted to see someone soon as I can, and Dad always said you’re the best in the field.”

_“I see. Will, I personally don’t like first sessions to be conducted over the phone. I’ll have to ask you to come over to the office. How does… four o’clock sound?”_

“You mean today?” Will’s heart sank, though he tried not to let it on.

_“Yes, anything for your father’s son. I think I might be able to fit you in between. This isn’t a good time for you?”_

He found he was watching his own door now instead of Kayla’s. “No, sure, it’s fine. I’ll go over there right now. Thank you, Mr. Clepison.”

He ended the call. He shouldn’t be feeling regret. He should be glad he got an appointment at such short notice. But he was still watching his bedroom door.

Nico was sleeping exactly as he’d left him, when he went back to his room, down to his frown. Will sat on the edge of the bed and touched the corner of Nico’s mouth, wanting to smooth out the lines as he had yesterday, but Nico turned his head away at his touch, the lines between his eyebrows deepening.

In a way he wished he had let Nico go yesterday. Then, he’d still been little more than a body to him. A body he was fixated on, but a body nonetheless. It would not have been very difficult to find a replacement. Will could have pegged his infatuation down to his own idiosyncratic taste, and found another small, dark haired boy to fall in love with. But now, not only did the prospect of finding a replacement seem difficult, it boded entirely wrong on him. It would be impossible to find someone with the same ratio of creepiness, childlike humor, and anger. He would look, he supposed, for someone who moved in the same sinuous way as Nico did, or joked the same way he did, but he doubted he ever could find one. His mind had created an ideal, perfect for him in every way, and he knew he could never find someone exactly the same. Some would come close, but he’d always be noticing little things that were off.

Will still watched him, noting very fine movements, feeling strange about them all.

He’d thought he had three days. He’d been stripped of two. He wished he hadn’t slept at all last night, and had spent the night watching Nico and remembering over and over again everything Nico had talked about. He wished he could have recorded Nico talking so that he would not forget his voice or the sound of his strange, spluttering laugh. The thought that he would, someday, gave him an aching pain in advance.

Soon, too soon, it was time to leave. Nico had not woken, and Will had not dared to wake him. It was a good way to part, he supposed. This way Nico looked little different from the cadaver in his lab. It was easier to think that Nico was and will be always like that, unattainable and dead. He kissed Nico’s forehead, before going out to ask if he could borrow Kayla’s car.

===

It was a mistake to go to Clepison. Despite readying himself for the two hour long drive, the sight of the man’s short salt and pepper hair and eyes crinkled with laugh lines were enough to remind Will of his childhood, and it made him sick to the core that his dad’s friend, who’d known him then, would now also know of his perversions. He would have hid the reason he was there and chalked it up to sleeping problems or depression, if it had not been for the firm belief in modern medicine that had been instilled into him.

To the doctor’s credit, he announced outright patient confidentiality and assured him he wouldn’t tell Will’s dad anything. And afterwards, when Will was telling him everything, he managed to keep a straight, professional face.

He didn’t receive a diagnosis that day (apparently his hallucinations weren’t exactly on the norm), but he did get a prescription, a recommendation to a shrink, and instructions on how to ignore the hallucinations. He made another appointment for the following week, and left the clinic a self-sorry mess, feeling raw and ragged, and sorely disappointed in himself. He felt as if he’d let go of a sacred part of himself to let it be tainted.

He picked up his meds on the way back. He didn’t know enough yet to understand what exactly they did, only that they were anti-psychotics. He bought a bottle of water while he was at it so he wouldn’t have to wait until he went to the apartment.

Waiting at the counter, he thought of Clepison’s instructions.

_Ignore the hallucination_

Nico, looking up from under his eyelashes.

_Hum or listen to music when the voices start._

Nico, his voice growing endearingly sleepy.

_Tell the hallucination ‘no’ when it tries to engage you._

Nico, putting a tentative hand on his arm.

_Always remember, they are not real._

Nico, his hand gestures flying all over the place. Nico, waving a hand in front of his face. Nico, Will’s shirt falling off of his shoulder. Nico, Nico, Nico.

He opened the meds and swallowed them down with water as soon as he was finished paying. But as he turned to leave he saw Mythomagic beginner’s packs on the toy rack. He ran his thumb over one in an internal non-verbal debate. He lost, and put one on the counter.

===

He was met with an unexpected sight when he opened the door to the apartment.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

Kayla squeaked, and hastily put her back to Will’s bedroom door, as if that would hide the fact that she’d been peeking in it.

“Nothing.” She squeaked again. She cleared her throat. “I thought it smelled a bit off in here, and you said there wasn’t anyone in here, and I-“

She regained her posture and stared him down. “Will, we need to talk.

Will walked toward her, frowning. “What about?”

“I’ve been talking to Cecil and Lou and- well, I really wasn’t expecting this but… This guy isn’t the one Cecil thinks you went home with couple weeks back, after the tagging test, is he?”

“…what?”

“You’ve been acting off for the last month and don’t take this the wrong way, but-“

“No, no. What guy? What…?” His throat was chocked. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t dare hope-

“The guy in your room,” Kayla said impatiently. “I’ve known you for years, Will, and this is…

Will’s plastic bag dropped to the floor, but Will couldn’t care less.

He grabbed Kayla’s shoulder, ignoring the frightened look she was giving him, and turned her to face the crack in the door.

“Tell me, tell me what you see.”

Nico was still in bed, lying sideways, blanket up to his neck, his face half hidden by his hair. “Tell me, Kayla, do you see him?”

Blood was rising to his ears, and his heart thumped loud, almost loud enough to drown out Kayla’s frightened response of “Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's prettty obvious, but Ash Clepison =Asclepius
> 
> I'll probably be able to get out the next chapter within a week.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's the reason I bumped up the rating. There's still nothing explicit. There are mentions of pseudo(?)-necrophilic sex, though.

Will pushed a shocked Kayla aside. He closed the door behind him, louder than he’d meant to, and he saw Nico waking with a small start. He ran towards him, flung the covers aside, and then jumped on top of him, squeezing him in a bear hug.

“You’re alive.”

Nico squirmed under him, barely awake and groggy. “What?”

“You’re alive!”

“Well, technically, I’m not really-“

“No, no no. I mean,” He held Nico’s face in his hands and squeezed it. “You’re real! You’re really here!”

“Of course I’m here,” Nico grumbled, turning so that he lay on his back, and so that he was facing Will. “It’s not like I have anywhere to go.”

“Oh!” Will said, too giddy to say anything else, and squeezed him harder, rubbing his cheek all over Nico’s.

“Get off me, Will, I can’t breathe. Okay, I don’t actually breathe but I can’t breathe in a metaphoric sort of way.”

Will laughed and kissed Nico’s forehead, his brows, the tip of his nose and both his cheeks. “Oh my god, you’re… how did you…? Oh!”

Will was still grinning, but as he kissed Nico’s cheeks Nico stopped trying to half-heartedly push Will off, and the confused look in his eyes turned to something else. Still breathless, Will’s grin subsided, and he was only breathing heavily onto Nico’s face, suddenly aware of how Nico felt below him.

Will dived in hungrily, and Nico responded in the same manner, his arms circling Will’s back tightly.

Will reeled back, not knowing why.

But Nico did. He looked for a second confused, and then came over him a swift look of resolve before his eyes closed, and his arms slunk back to bed. Will stared at him, and _oh!_ finally understood. He remembered all over again, with frightening clarity, why he wanted kiss him in the first place in the anatomy lab. He coveted Nico’s tranquility, needed to enter that sphere, perfect and distant.

Will kissed him again, just as desperate as before, but Nico kissed him back very softly, and soon Will was matching his pace, slow and deliberate. Nico’s lips were cold but not dead cold, and he could not get enough of them. He felt he could stay like this forever, nearly immobile, moving with the speed of continents, his hunger crystalized under the weight of the moment, and it was with regret that he had to back off, gasping for breath. But Nico was quiet beneath him, his arms on his side, his eyes shut, waiting.

Will kissed him again, this time quite chaste, and again and again. Nico was still now, barely even kissing back, and Will, though it was much, much too early to admit it to himself let alone say it out loud, felt that he loved him for it.

He sat up, legs set carefully not to put too much of his weight on Nico. He ran his fingers randomly down Nico’s cool chest and stomach and side, and a feeling of ownership, a sort of passive domination came over him, and made him catch his breath. To have something so whole and perfect be still under his hands! This, he thought, must be what eternity feels like.

His fingers caught at Nico’s nipple, and as Nico twitched a bit, he stopped too. When he moved again, Nico was again perfectly still, even when his fingers caught the hem of his shirt.

“Tell me when you want me to stop,” said Will. He was almost loathe to say anything, as if his voice might ruin the solid quietude he had under his hands, but he knew he had to say this. “Promise me you’ll tell me if you want me to stop.”

Nico’s eyes were still closed, the whole of his body impeccably still, not tarnished even by something as trivial the intake of air, but after a second he nodded microscopically.

Very, very slowly, Will bent down to kiss his lips, knowing they would be as still as the first time he kissed him.

===

Afterwards, Will could not help touching Nico. Enveloped in his arms, Nico felt so good that he had to keep checking that everything was real. There was no heavy breathing or sweating on Nico’s part, but fatigue was still evident. After he’d crawled towards Will’s open arms and laid his head on Will’s arm, he was again as still as he’d been during the whole ordeal, dozing off gently for several hours.

Will’s arm was getting numb and he pulled it back. He’d tried to be gentle, but even so Nico stirred. Will pushed back the hair from Nico’s face, so as to see better Nico’s half-closed eyes. “You were good for me, angel, you know that? So good.””

Nico hummed gently and turned to face him. Feeling Nico’s eyes on him, Will ran his hand slowly down Nico’s neck, his side, and his hips, then repeated the track over and over again.

“You didn’t much like that, did you?” He tore his eyes away from Nico’s body to meet his eyes.

Nico looked at him owlishly. “I liked it.”

“No, I mean…” His hand faltered on Nico’s bare hip. “You know what I’m talking about.”

Nico didn’t answer.

“Do you think I’m gross, wanting you like that?”

Nico took a long time answering. “A little,” he finally admitted. “I don’t really understand, that’s all.” He put his hand on Will’s cheek at the look on his face. “It’s okay. If you weren’t weird, I wouldn’t be here at all.”

Will tried to imagine Nico screaming his name, bucking against him, maybe riding Will in staccato flicks of his waist. He’d always thought those were the things he wanted. But with Nico, those displays of vigor seemed crass, like blighting something flawless. Will thought about before, Nico cold and still and perfect and _his,_ and knew which way he preferred him, and also that he couldn’t say why.

“I could try.” He said with a bit of regret. “We should do what you want.”

“I really don’t mind,” Nico said, then looked a bit sheepish. “I don’t really know what I like, you know.”

Will had guessed at Nico’s inexperience, not that there had been any way to know for certain; there hadn’t been much room for communication, not in the manner in which they had interacted. But it had been rather obvious even before, from the way he was constantly doubting Will’s blatant interest in him, that Nico was starved for affection. He had to wonder what lengths Nico would go to in order to ensure it.

“It’s okay. I learned from-“ Nico cut off. “I learned that what I want isn’t always a good thing. I like you feeling good, so I guess I like what you like.”

There was a part of Will, and no small part either, that was pleased at this statement and content to leave things like this. But the idea that Nico was simply enduring, felt entirely too similar to having Nico on that lab table, having Will’s scalpel tear through him and unable to struggle.

Will drew closer to him. “I don’t want you to sacrifice for me. You’ve got to tell me what you want, okay?” He enveloped Nico’s hand on his face and played with his fingers.

“I think…”

“Yeah?”

“I want to kiss you back sometimes. And…” Nico looked embarrassed. “I think I want to see you when you c- you know.” He said hurriedly, “It’s just I never have, and I wondered how it looked.”

Nico’s mortification looked like a 16 year old Will’s wet dream, and Will had to stare a bit. Nico, however, seemed to take this as a dismissal, and said hastily, “It was just a thought.”

Will laughed and pressed his face closer. “Then let’s make it real.”

===

Unfortunately, at some point Will had to leave the comfort of the bed and Nico’s limbs. He hadn’t had anything since that bowl of muesli. Bar a bit of protein.

He found the living room a bit more occupied than he’d left it. “Hey guys.” Will was going to flash them a grin, then he realized he was already grinning.

The three of them looked up with a start from their conversation looking guilty (except for Cecil, who never did guilty but did a trademark don’t-look-at-me-okay-it-was-me-but-give-me-a-second-and-I’ll-think-of-a-excuse expression, including all eighteen hyphens), and muttered bits of ‘hey’s.

Ignoring their abrupt, awkward silence, Will hummed over to the fridge. Rummaging inside, he found he had to decide from the attractive choices of; milk, guacamole, beer, steak sauce, a bag of previously frozen peas, and two saggy apples. He picked up the guacamole, put it back upon seeing it that the green stuff wasn’t avocado, and got an apple instead, noting it looked a bit like Sneezy’s head. All the while, the three were debating in whispers that got steadily louder.

“You tell him-“

“No, you’re the one who said-“

“Are you even sure he’s-“

“Hey, you’re the one who said the guy looked like-“

Will asked with no real bite, “Are you guys talking about me?”

“No,” Cecil said, oozing innocence.

Lou Ellen rolled her eyes, and then looked resolved. “Will, we need to talk.”

Will went over to the couch, vaguely aware that he was still grinning. He tried to stop, since he seemed to be unnerving Lou a bit, but then gave up and went back to merely trying not to burst into laughter. “Okay, what should we talk about?”

Lou opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, coughed, closed it again, and then poked Kayla, who gave her a dirty look. “Will, you know you’ve been acting a bit oddly for the last couple weeks?” Kayla asked.

Will shrugged. “’m fine now.” He grinned even bigger, if that was possible. “Absolutely fine.”

“Uh… yes. Well, anyway. We wanted to ask… the guy in your room isn’t the one you went with after that tagging test, is he?”

Will laughed. “No.” Then paused. ”Wait, you said you didn’t remember anything.” He said to Cecil.

Cecil did that not really guilty expression again. “I said I didn’t remember you going with anyone. I remember you making out with that guy at the bar.”

“Hey!”

“Always ask the right questions, my friend.”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but,” Kayla cut in. “That guy then, this guy now. You do realize who they look like?”

“Wait, no. You’ve got it wrong,” he said, then laughed, thoroughly amused. “No, no actually, you’ve got it exactly right.”

Cecil hid the horrified expression on his face after a second, but the other two were not so successful. Kayla said slowly, “I’ve known you for years, Will. I don’t want to presume, but I think I know your type, and I don’t think ….this ever was it.”

At that, Will was finally able to stop grinning. No need to make his friends worry even more, not when they already thought Will was crushing on their cadaver. Not that it wasn’t true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd especially love your feedback on this chapter. I was going for Icky. Did ya feel it?
> 
> Also, if you've wondered why the end of this chapter was so abrupt, this (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4296405 ) is the reason why. (It's been put down as part 2 of a series, you might find that easier to navigate with.) An alternative ending to this story, deviating from right here, at the end of this chapter. (Many thanks to commenter Ivan.) Check it out if you liked cray cray Will.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure I've grossed some people away with the last chapter. I'll try not to do that again.

“I know it’s none of our business, but we’re just worried, we really are,” said Lou. “We can tell you’re really distracted nowadays. If you need any help-“

“Look, you guys don’t understand. Wait, I’ll show you.” He gestured towards his door. “It’s time you met him.”

His friends glanced at each other. “Uhh, I don’t… really want to?” Cecil said.

Kayla was looking at his with a frown. He couldn’t blame her, just 10 hours prior he’d been reticent even talking about him, and now he was insisting on introducing to them a guy he’d purportedly met only the day before.

“You’ll understand. Just stay still, okay?”

Nico was still in bed when he went to his room. He dragged him out, ignoring his yelps. “Come on, let me introduce you to my friends. They’re waiting outside.”

“Like right now?”

Will threw him some clothes. “Well, for some reason I doubt you have any previous engagement?”

“I just don’t think this is necessary,” grumbled Nico.

“I can’t hide you in my room forever. It’s unhealthy.”

Nico was stalling, dressing purposely slowly. Will pulled the shirt over his head, laughing. “Come on, they’ll like you. What’s not to like?”

“People don’t, generally.”

“I think it’s you trying to kill them maybe?”

Nico glared.

“They’ll like you. They’re my friends, and you’re my-“ He paused. ‘Boyfriends’ was off beam for what they were. “You’re mine.” He said instead.

He kissed the resulting blush, then pulled-dragged Nico by his hand out the room and to the front of the TV screen.

"Everyone, this is Nico. Nico, these are my friends, Lou Ellen, Cecil, and Kayla."

He'd expected screaming. He wouldn't have bet anything below ultra-dramatic gasps at the very least. He'd fainted upon first seeing Nico, after all, though that might have been more due to his less than presentable appearance. He hadn't expected 'hi's and awkward smiles. They looked uncomfortable more than anything else.

He glanced at Nico to see if he was hiding his face or whatever, but only found him scowling and looking jumpy under his friend' scrutiny. The shirt he’d pulled out without thinking turned out to be the tie-dyed one with the loose neck, which, he realized, might not have been the best choice, judging from the magnificent hickey that Nico supported on his lower neck.

Lou attempted to break the ice. "So, uh... how'd you guys meet?"

Will stared at her.

Kayla was whispering to Cecil. Will could mouth read the word 'uncanny'. As he stood there, not sure how to address the situation, the awkward silence stretched on.

"I'm gonna go." Nico tried to pry his hand away from him. He grasped it even tighter. "No, no. Stay."

"You guys, don't you...?" He searched the uncomfortable faces, then understood. “Oh, of course you don't.” He laughed. “You saw him for like 5 minutes more than a month ago. Sheesh. You think he's just a lookalike too, like the other guy.”

“Other guy?” Nico asked, obviously trying and failing to sound unconcerned.

“Uhh, there is no other guy, he’s… you know what? I’ll explain later.” He gave him a quick, reassuring smile which was not countered back, then faced his friends. Of course they were confused. Unlike him, they hadn’t spent the last month thinking about Nico’s face every 9 seconds. He took a deep breath. “Guys, this is him. This is our guy. Nico is cadaver 13.” He looked at them expectantly.

Lou narrowed her eyes, but Cecil and Kayla exchanged stony glances. Kayla spoke up first. “Will, as much as I think it’s a good thing to indulge in your needs in a healthy and uh, reciprocal way, and you know, we’re glad you feel close enough to us to tell us stuff, but…” She glanced at Cecil.

“Keep us out of your kinky role-playing sex life, man.” Cecil said.

“What? No, there is no kinky role-playing sex thing.”

“Actually…” Nico muttered.

He stamped down on Nico’s foot. “This is really him. Our guy, our cadaver. He’s alive now. Don’t you see?” He pulled Nico’s hand toward Cecil, ignoring how he stumbled. “You’re the one who did his hand. Look, exactly the same, all 27 bones. Look!” He shoved the hand in Cecil’s face, who leaned away, startled. He turned to Lou. “Remember that tiny birthmark thing on his lower back you said looked maybe like a Mercedes-Benz logo and maybe like a peace sign?” He spun Nico around and lifted his shirt up. “See, right here.”

“I have a birthmark there?” Nico craned his head around to see.

Lou was looking at the birthmark interestedly but Kayla spoke up, in the sort of voice that was usually reserved for people who were on their sick bed, “Will, I know you’re under a lot of stress right now, but let’s be reasonable. I’ll make a cup of tea or something and we’ll talk, okay?”

Will mustered the urge to scream in frustration, mostly because that would not have aided in proving his sanity. “Will you just look? Stop trying to be realistic, and just _look_.”

“I never thought I would ever say this to you of all people, but calm down.” Cecil said, sounding almost amused. “I mean, the cadaver, we cut it up. It’s dead. In fact I don’t want it coming alive, it’ll be like that gross ending in the Monkey’s Paw. You know, that story. If it came crawling here I’d kill it again, love of your life or not.” He looked at Nico. “No offence, man.”

“None taken.”

“Stop encouraging them, Nico.”

“But that’s true, Will,” said Lou. “How do you imagine he came back alive?”

“He’s a vampire.”

Cecil erupted in laughter, Kayla looked angry and worried, and Lou met his eyes with a pitying look. Will winced at them all.

“It’s true.” Nico said.

“What are you on, man?” Cecil asked. “Do you have some le-“

Kayla cut in, ironically looked relieved at this conjecture. “Could you give us a moment…? Nico, was it?”

With his social anxiety, Nico apparently didn’t need an excuse to leave the crowd. “Sure.”

“No, don’t go. Nico, tell them I’m not high.”

“He’s not high.”

They ignored him. “I knew he looked too happy. Even he can’t be that happy,” Cecil said, grabbing his arms and turning them over.

Kayla went for his eyes. “Actually, you’d be surprised,” she said, forcing his eyes open and inspecting them. “They’re not red at all,” she said, sounding disappointed. “Do you think his pupils are dilated? I can’t tell.”

Lou got out her phone and pointed light straight at his eyes.

“Hey!”

“Pupils respond to light. You can stop searching his arms, Cecil.”

“Thank you,” Will said, exasperated.

“Get some water. Let’s detox him.”

“No, I told you, I’m not on anything.” he said, wrenching his arms away from Cecil. “Kayla, you’ve known me for years, we went to the same college. When have I ever used?”

For the first time Kayla looked doubtful. “He’s right, you know.” She looked at Nico, who stood a couple feet away, looking confused about everything. “What did you slip him?”

“What?” Nico spluttered. “No!”

Will jumped in front of him to hide him from Kayla, possibly saving her life, though she didn’t know it. “Shut up everyone, calm down.” He looked to Nico. “Come on, Nico, show them.”

“Show them what?”

“That you’re a vampire!”

“What, you think we get certificates or something?”

“Well, do something!”

“Do what?” Nico said, looking panicky under so many stares.

“I dunno! Do… something. I’m not the one with the v hairline!”

“Okay, okay.”

Will stepped sideways and subjected Nico to the three's dubious looks.

"Okay, here we go," Nico muttered and closed his eyes. For several long seconds nothing happened. Agitated, Will turned to see Cecil whispering something to Kayla. He turned back, to see Nico explode.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made myself wince. This has to be the most shameless ending in the history of cliffhangers. But I couldn't resist.  
> As an apology I'll try to get the next chapter up soon as possible :)


	8. Conversations Under Flashlight-A brief interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this thing and didn't know where to put it. So here you go, a quick look at the past.

The light of the flashlight cut across through the gloom, and landed on the far side of the arced walls, revealing perspiration and various, almost colorless stains. The lack of graffiti was enough proof that they were deep enough, that and the smell.

There was the sound of running water, not fast or strong, but continuous, and a constant sound of dripping that seemed to come from everywhere and reverberated from the tunnel walls. There was another sound as well, of mechanical footsteps that knew their course.

There was a click, and a small flare of light.

“Seems quiet tonight,” said a voice.

A snort. “Just ten more years in the force will teach you never to say that.” This voice was older, gruffer, almost intentionally so. The light illuminated the owner of the voice’s face, then was cut off, replaced by a smoking cigarette. But just before it did, any onlooker would have seen the flash of a badge.

“Bad luck?” The other voice asked. The owner of this voice had a badge as well, much shinier. One watching him might have noticed how he touched it at regular intervals, as if making sure it was there.

The cop replied crustily. “More like statistics.”

They continued along the cement walk. “Let’s do that one bend and call it a night.” The cop said, in a short while.

But the other man was waving his flashlight at their right, towards a small, blocked up tunnel where murky water only trickled to, the flow nearly nonexistent.

“Don’t bother, kid. We’ve technically done that part. It leads to that north tunnel with the homeless dens.”

The man said, “No. Do you hear it?”

They both stood still, and there was a sound, faint but echoing, of something being dragged.

At the cop’s lead they climbed over the blockade, the cop with more difficulty than the man, who jumped nimbly over with a small splash. The blocked tunnel was dark, much darker than the main tunnel. The cop turned off his flashlight and put it in, leaving only one narrow beam of light from the other man’s hand. “Do you think this had to do with all the missing-“ The man whispered, but the cop put a finger to his lips, and meeting the man’ eyes, the cop took out his gun. Swallowing, the man nodded. With careful, hasty footsteps they followed the sound. They took a turn into a smaller tunnel, then another one.

The sound grew steadily louder, until it stopped. They stood still for a couple seconds at the sudden silence, then approached where the last of the sound had come from, from a bend in the corner.

It was pitch dark. The man searched with the flashlight. The light showed a dead end, and on further inspection of the floor, two bodies laid haphazardly.

At the sight the man waved the light frantically, and the light hit a figure, at the wall, crouched over a third body, but in a second it moved out of the light, coming towards the man and the cop quicker than humanely possible.

The man reached for his gun, but before he could pull it out of the holster, he heard gunshots. At the last shot there was a yowl, obviously human, but oddly catlike as well. The man searched with the flashlight, and the light found a naked figure ten feet away, prostate, bleeding out from a hole through the back.

“We need back up and an ambulance,” the man said. “Hedge?”

The cop fired again.

“Hedge, what are you-“

He got the shoulder, splattering the floor and the two cops. Then the man saw how the figure was moving, getting up, slowly but surely, and how the hole in its back was knitting back up.

The man took out his gun, transferring the flashlight to his left hand. The figure was now fully up, and Hedge fired, again and again. The figure was pushed back by the force of the shots, but it still stood, missing its shoulder and arm, riddled with bullet holes.

The gun clicked. The cop swore. He was out. “Get its head.” the cop said urgently.

The man pointed his gun, and for the first time focused on the figure’s face. “Hedge, it’s a kid.

“That’s not a kid, that’s a monster,” the cop said. If anyone had been watching the man’s face, they might have noticed his green eyes widening by a fraction at the words, with something like remembrance.

“What are you doing, shoot!” The man didn't move. The cop swore and replaced his own mag.

“No, Hedge, see, he’s scared,” the man said. Towards the bloody figure he said, "Put your hands- _hand_ in the air."

The figure swayed.

"I said, put your hand in the air."

"It hurts." The voice was young, and sounded surprised. After a second the man lowered his gun.

 

And so changed everything.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The sewer scene from the previous interlude chapter might have been a bit unclear. It'll make sense in a while. If the time comes and you're still not sure what that was, just tell me :)

It took a long time to round up all the bats.

The process involved turning on the lights of all the rooms except the living room and swatting out the stray creatures from various crannies. It was only when Lou discovered one hiding from under Kayla’s bed that Nico appeared, with a contortion of space in a reverse of the silent explosion before, hurting Will’s eyes and head.

He opened his mouth. “I think I’m going to puke.”

Luckily he didn’t, and after he’d gotten dressed, all five of them except for Cecil, who drew up a kitchen chair, squashed into the couch. There was a bit of a moment where everyone looked at each other, wondering who’d be the first to say something.

“I’ve got one!” Lou said suddenly. They looked at her.

“What did the lesbian vampire say to the other?”

Nico groaned.

“What?” Cecil asked, who never quite managed to learn.

“Same time next month?” Lou announced excitedly.

They all groaned.

“Ooh, ooh, here’s another one. This one is better suited, I think. What did the gay vampire say-“

“So, bats huh?” Kayla cut in, probably because she’d seen the murderous look in Nico’s eyes.

“Yeah.”

“Not one bat?”

“I can do that too, it’s just easier this way. Mass conservation, you know. The more elementary the law of physics is, the more effort it takes to bypass it.” He paused. “I think. What do I know, I can barely remember the multiplication table.”

“Make sense.” Cecil said.

“Not really.”

That started a deluge of questions on vampires. Will listened mostly, noting that while Nico had been mostly happy to answer his questions, his amiability did not extend to anyone else. Nico responded curtly, and with growing annoyance.

“Yes, sunlamps would probably work as well. No, I don’t think Buffy is real. Now, are you done figuring out every single way you could possibly kill me?”

“Uh…” Lou said. “AIDS?”

“No.”

“I just thought,” she said thoughtfully, “What you do, it’s somewhat like reusing needles?”

“No, it’s not. Not in the slightest.”

“It’s interesting, though.” Lou wondered. “How everything we know about vampires mostly center on how to kill them.”

“It is, isn’t it.” Nico said drily.

“Yeah, but you guys can just, you know, come back alive again. How’d you do it? Was there like a full moon or something?” Cecil asked.

Nico opened his mouth to tell him, but Will squeezed his arm, hard. “What? Oh. Yeah, sure… full moon, whatever.”

Kayla raised her eyebrows at Will in an uncomfortably knowing manner. “Whatever it was, I’m guessing we don’t have a cadaver anymore?”

Will stared at Lou, whose wide eyed expression matched his.

“Oh no! We’re going to fail Anatomy,” she said.

“We can’t fail Anatomy, we’re going to get kicked out.” Cecil said.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” Will said, slightly offended.

“Of course we are. We’re med students. We live for our grades.”

“No, you guys!” Will said. “They’re going to think I took Nico. I was the last one in the lab.”

“Oh,” Lou said, abashed.

“What are they going to think you did with the body anyway?” Frowned Cecil. “Humped it, cut it up, put it in a garbage bag and dumped it in an alley?”

Will stared. “Where did that come from?”

“No idea.”

“What’ll happen when they discover the body’s gone?” Kayla asked.

“I dunno but it’s hard to imagine they won’t involve me. Maybe they’ll call the police or something.”

“Do you think you could get arrested for this? Maybe they’ll think someone broke in and took it as a college prank.”

“How do we get tested without a cadaver?” Wondered Lou.

Cecil was suggesting they’d get split up and put into other groups when Nico stood up abruptly, breaking Will’s hold on him. “It looks like you don’t need me anymore. I’ll be in Will’s room.”

His face was cold and set as he crossed his way to the room, and shut the door behind him. Will stood up to follow him. “Uh, excuse me, guys.”

Nico was shuffling Mythomagic cards at the desk with expert hands when he entered.

“Angel, what’s wrong?”

Nico didn’t look up as he answered. “Nothing, I’m just bad with crowds. Well, any living, breathing human, actually. I figured I had enough social interaction for the day.”

“You were fine with this living, breathing human,” he pointed at himself. What Nico told him seemed true to a point, but Will ran over the past conversations in his head. “They don’t hate you, Angel.”

Nico snorted. “Yeah, well, they’re not very happy to see me here either, are they?”

“What, you don’t think they’d rather have you dead?” Will said with a smile.

He laughed when Nico didn’t answer. “Angel, don’t be stupid.”

Nico glared at him. Will rolled his eyes. Nico’s glares were very good, top-grade in fact, but it was hard to be scared by them when he knew Nico was intimidated by something as petty as his friends’ opinions. _His friends!_ He admitted Kayla could have her bossy moments when she put a mind to it, but not even a two year old could possibly be overwhelmed by Lou and Cecil’s presence.

“I saw how they looked at me, okay? They’re scared of me. They don’t really want me here.”

“Well that’s what happens when you decide to burst into a bunch of bats. A little warning next time, will you?”

“You’re the one who was frothing from the mouth, saying I should do something.”

“Yeah, well.” He grinned. “You can’t tell me you don’t secretly enjoy scaring people. I can tell, you know.”

Nico huffed. “People are nervous of me, whether I mean to or not. Might as well get some fun out of it.”

“Are you hearing yourself, Angel? You scare people, and then you worry they don’t like you?”

“I’m not good with people. I actually haven’t talked to a lot of them, less than a handful, really. Well I’ve _talked_ to people, like when I’m out buying stuff or whatever, but not conversation, friend stuff, I don’t really know how to do that.”

Will’s heart gave a pang. “You said you lived in an apartment for 4 years after the sewers, you were alone all that time?”

“No, I lived with… two people. But they didn’t really like me meeting people, they were always afraid I would… relapse. And even if they did I still wouldn’t have had much of an opportunity for social encounters. As you can probably imagine that’s kinda hard when you can’t go out for most of the day.”

“But you’re fine with me. Look at you, all talking like a normal person, with words instead of pure snark.”

“Well you’re… different.”

Will laughed and kissed him. Nico rolled his eyes but kissed him back anyway.

Will put his forehead to Nico’s. “You can’t keep scaring people away because you’re afraid they won’t like you, you’re only hurting yourself. I get it’s hard, but try to get out of your brooding cloud. Just try. If it doesn’t work, well, you’ll still have me. What’s there to lose?”

Nico grumbled incoherently, and Will smiled. “I want you happy. That’s all I want, I swear. I wouldn’t make you do anything that could hurt you. Those guys out there, they’re nice people. They might be a little judgmental, but they mean well. They’re just kinda weirded out about the whole thing.”

“They’re probably talking about me right now.”

“Yeah, probably,” Will admitted.

“And not in a good way.”

“…Probably not. But,” he said, seeing Nico’s face. “They’re just freaking out about us missing a cadaver. It doesn’t mean they’d rather have a cadaver than you.”

“I beg to differ.”

“Well, I beg to differ, too.”

“That’s not how that phrase works.”

“Doesn’t matter, I’m right. Don’t you dare feel guilty about us missing a specimen, it’s not your fault. Maybe to the guys outside, it’s a little bit of mine, but it’s definitely not your fault, okay?”

“I don’t like that it’s your fault, either.

Will laughed. “Well, you can’t help it.” He held Nico’s face in his hands. “I don’t regret you here, I would never. Don’t you rethink what happened, because I certainly don’t.”

“What are you going to do about me being missing, though?”

Will shrugged. “What could possibly happen?”

“Get arrested, get nearly admitted to a mental asylum, and then be driven to kill yourself?”

Will stared. “Where did that come from?”

Nico looked confused. “No idea.”

Will shrugged. “Anyway, I’m gonna head out again, I don’t want them getting ideas. If you thought Lou’s vampire joke was bad, you should hear her sex jokes. Wanna go out and try out the ‘getting out of the brooding cloud’?”

“Maybe next time. I really have had enough social interaction for the day.”

“Okay.” Will smiled and kissed his forehead. “All in good time.”

Nico was looking thoughtful. “Do you think it’ll get less weird if the cadaver thing is taken care of?”

“Yeah, maybe?” Will gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about that, okay?” He left behind Nico’s mumbled ‘sure’.

The three were talking when he came back to the couch.

“Is everything all right?” Kayla asked.

“Yeah, it’s nothing. He’s just not a people person.”

Lou said wonderingly, “Actually, he’s not a person at all, is he?”

“Hey.”

She smiled sheepishly. “Just saying.”

“Anyway, we were just talking,” Kayla said. “Do you remember any security cameras in the hallway or whatever?”

“I don’t actually make it a habit, looking around for security cameras?”

“If there are cameras, we could prove that you weren’t lugging a huge body bag around.”

Cecil frowned. “Uh… I don’t know about anywhere else, but I don’t think there’s one near the door. So, yeah, that wouldn’t work.”

“But all we need is for someone to have entered the lab after you left, right?” Lou asked.

“I guess, if you guys all vouch for me.”

“Sure,” Kayla said. “If anyone asks you got to the apartment all sane and not carrying a corpse. We saw you with our own eyes.”

“Thanks, guys.”

“But how do we make it that someone entered the lab after you left? The door got locked behind you, right?”

“All we need is for the lock to have be tempered with when people arrive on Monday.”

“How are we going to do that?”

Cecil coughed into his fist.

“What?” Kayla frowned.

Lou laughed. “Just because you got lucky that one time I got locked out, it does not make you some master locksmith, Cecil!”

“I’m pretty good alright? I have these two cousins, we’re pretty close- they look like twins but they’re actually brothers, but anyway, they’re nearly professionals. They taught me all these neat tricks on how to pick locks.”

“Even digital ones?”

“Yeah. Uh. Well, no actually, but they can’t be all that different from safe locks, can they?”

Will exchanged glances with Kayla. “Mind if we keep a backup plan?” She said.

They talked some more, trying to find a viable solution to the ‘Keep Will out of Jail’ project, but they wound up in circles. “I can’t think! I must heed my brain, it needs glucose,” Lou said finally, her lower half sliding off the couch.

“Have an apple,” Will said, pointing to the one he’d left on the coffee table a bit before.

Cecil wrinkled his nose. “That’s gross, man. You two need some proper groceries.”

They decided on pizza, for no other reason than it was marginally cheaper than ordering Chinese. “Wait a minute, does pizza have garlic in it?” Lou asked, holding the phone.

Will flashed her a smile for remembering Nico. “I don’t know, we could tell them not to put garlic butter in it or something?”

“Okay. Oh, go ask Nico if he minds Hawaiian,” she said.

He went to his door and knocked. “Angel, do vampires eat pineapples?” There was no answer, and he opened the door.

Kayla and Cecil, alarmed by his frozen state, came to peek over his shoulder at the now uninhabited room. The cardboards were ripped off, and the window was open.

“Dude, looks like you got dumped.”

Kayla slapped Cecil's shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Flock of bats, not bat, because of the principle of mass conservation' is a Discworld thing.  
> Cecil's cousins are the Stoll brothers if you didn't get that. Not that it matters in any possible way.  
> I also apologize for that stupid self-referential thing I did.


	10. Chapter 10

“How long do you think he’s been gone?” Kayla said on the couch, looking sympathetically at Will.

“An hour, ten minutes, what does it matter, you think you can outrun him?” Cecil asked.

Will thunked his head on the armrest again.

“Maybe he’ll be back, Bella,” Lou said, rubbing soothing circle on Will’s back. She stopped abruptly. “Ooh, didn’t Edward leave Bella, remember guys? And she went all crazy? This is exactly like that!”

“You mean in New Moon?” Cecil said, absentmindedly.

Even Will got out of his catatonia to stare. “What, no!” Cecil spluttered. “I thought…there was a bet and… the cover looked interesting and I didn’t know…” He cursed and deflated. “Who am I kidding.”

“Oookay,” Lou said. “Anyway, I’m not certain, because I’m not some pathetic fangirl like Cecil-“

“What? No, I just-“

“- but I’m pretty sure Edward comes back later. How did that happen, anyway, Cecil?”

Cecil looked very much like he didn’t want to answer, but sighed, then said grudgingly, “She jumps off a cliff.”

“See? Well, don’t do that, but Nico will come back later on, too, I’m sure.”

The doorbell rang. “Must be the pizza guy,” Cecil said, sounding glad of the distraction.

“I’ll get it.” Kayla jumped to her feet and went to the door.

Will still had his head to the armrest when he heard the door opening and the words, “Where can I put this?”

He sprang up. “Nico?” He faintly registered before he did so that Cecil and Lou next to him were frozen. Then he looked up he saw why.

Nico was standing in the doorway, lugging a full grown man over his shoulder. He looked questioningly at the four’s shock, and shutting the door behind him, walked over to the living room. His footsteps were light, as if the man weighed nothing at all. It was with the same effortless grace that he dumped the body on the coffee table.

The man was much too tall for the coffee table, and his head flopped off the one end, his mop of brown hair falling from his face and revealing open, pond-scum colored eyes. His knees bent at the other end, his legs sprawled. His arms fell to the side of the table.

The man was very much dead on sight, but that didn’t stop Kayla from tentatively approaching him and trying to locate a pulse. Will could see her recoiling slightly on contact with the skin. She released his forearm after a couple seconds.

Everyone stared at the corpse. It was easy to see how he’d died. Despite his head dangling off the table, his neck was stuck at an odd angle, and Will could see the contours of the neck bones, not breaking the skin, but very nearly so.

“Oh, my god. Oh my fucking god.” Cecil breathed. Then he said the same thing louder.

“I thought he’d work okay,” Nico said, looking slightly unnerved at their responses. “He’s taller than me, but I noticed you had all the bodies’ faces covered… so.” The room fell into silence.

Nico shuffled his feet. Will noticed he was still barefoot. “Did you…?”

“Yeah,” Nico said, in the tone that he was stating the obvious.

Will wanted to ask why, but knew the answer before he asked it. They were missing a body, so Nico had gotten one for them. There was a very simple, childlike logic there.

The behavior reminded him of something. When Will was young, he’d catsitted for a couple weeks for a neighbor. One time, a cat had brought a dead crow at the front door, which he’d nearly stepped on. When he’d relayed the incident to the owner the following week with a disgusted face, she’d laughed and said that it was proof Will had done his job well, that it was the cat’s way of thanking him, and saying it cared about him. She’d also said that the next time that happened, Will should thank the cat and dispose the dead animal when it wasn’t looking.

Will looked at Nico, who was looking nervous and hopeful, pretty much exactly like a cat that was expecting compliments.

“Do you know this guy?” Will asked.

“Yeah. I told you about him, he’s the one who killed me. Luckily he was still living where I’d left him.”

Will didn’t ask what he’d have done if he hadn’t been able to find the man. “The psychopath? The one that tortured you?”

“Yeah.”

That made it marginally better. He looked at Lou next to her, who was covering her lower face with her hands. Next to her, Cecil was hyperventilating. Will got up to give him a bag to breathe into.

Kayla joined him at the kitchen. “What the hell are we going to do!” She hissed under her breath at him.

“I don’t-“

“There is a dead body on my coffee table!”

Will thought about pointing out that it was _their_ coffee table, but decided not to. “He meant well, okay?”

“Oh sure, he meant well, maybe that’s what we should tell the jury when we get trialed for _murder_!”

He looked back at Nico, who was pointedly not looking at their direction. He could probably hear everything they were saying. “Shush, I’ll talk to him.”

He gave the bag to Cecil, who started to breathe more normally. Lou was still staring at the body.

“So… you don’t want him?” Nico asked in a small voice.

He sighed. “Nico, we can’t use him.”

“You can’t?” Nico’s face fell. “I tried to make it clean. Look, I didn’t even drink him.”

Will exchanged glances with Kayla. “We can’t dissect someone you’ve killed!” Kayla said faintly.

Nico looked confused. “Why not?”

“That’s… well, that’s illegal, and…”

Will gave her a condolatory look, and searched for an answer. “The bodies are supposed to be embalmed. We don’t know how to do that.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Should I put him back, then?”

“We would…appreciate that, yes.”

“Wait,” Kayla said. “Did anyone see you?”

“Probably not. I’m kinda quick.”

“What about security cameras?”

“I don’t appear in cameras. Mirrors, cameras, they’re all the s-“

The doorbell rang. “It’s the pizza guy,” Kayla said. “Everyone just… stay still and try not to look suspicious. And cover him up.”

Will put a throw over the body. His legs still stuck out. Will stood obscuring them from view, and probably looking very suspicious indeed.

Kayla opened the door with the bar latch on. “Here’s fifty bucks, keep the change,” she said in a rush. She paused.” You’re not the pizza guy.”

Will heard a man’s voice from the other side of the door. “What? Uh... no, we’re not. And I think you know what we’re here for.”

“No, I don’t,” she said, panicky. At the couch, Lou and Cecil stood up to look at what was happening.

“Just give him back, and there won’t be any more trouble. I’m saying this for your own good, you know. He’s dangerous.”

“I don’t…” Kayla tried to shut the door, but a foot appeared, wedging it open.

“Look, you can trust me, okay?” Will saw a police badge appear through the crack, then disappear. “I don’t know why you even have him here in the first place, but I won’t ask questions. I’m just taking him home.”

Kayla tried to shut the door. “You don’t know what you’re dealing wi- Ow, ow, ow,” the voice went.

“I’m calling the cops,” Kayla, “You’re… you don’t even have a warrant!”

“I really didn’t want to have to do this, but… Jason, come on!”

Will didn’t know what was happening, but Kayla screamed. There was a huge blow to the door, then another, and the door swung open as the bar latch broke.

There stood on the doorway, a black-haired man, and on his side, a huge grey dog on a chain leash. The man was in civilian clothing; jeans and a blue jacket, and towing a messenger bag. Before Will could properly register that _there was a cop in his apartment, his apartment where a dead body was currently on display,_ the man beamed. “Nico," he exclaimed, walking towards him. “Do you have any idea how long we’ve been-“

Will saw the man’s green eyes travel towards the figure on the coffee table. His expression changed instantly, and in a second his hand went inside of his jacket.

Lou squeaked and dove for cover, pulling Cecil down with her. But what appeared was not a firearm, but a crucifix. He held it out towards Nico, who cowered backwards to a corner.

"Hey, stop!" Will said.

"Move over, he's dangerous." The man said. "He killed your friend!"

Will tried to say that 'no, that wasn't their friend', and moved in front of Nico.

"Move!"

"No, he's-"

The dog jumped at him, knocking him over and out of the man's way. On the floor, Will gaped at the creature on his chest, breathing quickly. He saw the highly slanted yellow eyes and heavy black lining around them, and realized that this was no dog.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The character tags have now been updated :)


	11. Conversation Under Lamplight- Another brief interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another brief foray to the past.  
> ...I miss Rainbow the Hippocampus.

In the darkness, the only thing visible was the outline of the door, rimmed bright yellow from the light from the living room. The door opened with a small creak, and the yellow grew, before it diminished again and the door clicked shut.

“Nico?”

In the darkness something moved; silent, unseen, and deadly fast. The owner of the voice tried to move out of the way, but was pinned to the wall by his neck.

In a second, there was a hiss, and the figure slunk into the dark.

“Aww, man, but you were doing so good,” disappointment was thick in the voice. “You don’t want me bringing out the silver again, do you?”

“…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean too.”

The switch clicked. Then again.

A sigh. “Nico, did you break the lightbulb again?”

“It was too bright.”

“I told you, man, just turn it off, then.”

“I know, I just… got mad.”

“Well, try not to be, okay? Now where is it, it was-“ There was a shuffling sound. “There.”

A yellow fan of light appeared and dispelled the gloom. It illuminated the top of the low bookcase the lamp stood on, and the items that were showcased; several books for children, figurines, framed pictures. If one looked closely enough, one could see, despite the meticulous organization, a fine layer of dust covering them.

A man stood over the lamp, watching it fondly.

“That’s an odd lamp.” The figure was at the corner of the bed where it met the wall, and where the light didn’t quite reach.

“Yeah,” the man grinned. “It’s his, you know? He likes sea horses. This one’s name is Rainbow.” The man turned away from the bookcase and to the bed. He frowned at the glass fragments from the broken lightbulb that littered the side of the bed and part of the floor. “I’ll come back later with a dust pan or something and clean this up.” He sat on the bed, facing the figure. “What do you do in the dark anyway?”

“I try to think. It’s hard… sometimes. I have to concentrate. It’s easier to… let go.”

“Is that when you break the lightbulb?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, look at me. Hey, come on. You’re not a monster, okay? You’re a kid.” There was a practiced note in the tone of his voice. The same words might have been said a hundred times before, though perhaps not to the same person. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

The man fell into silence then, lost in memory, it seemed.

“How long has it been?” The figure asked quietly.

“Since I brought you here? Uh, I guess it’s been a bit over two months, Hedge has been-“

“No, I meant- what day is it?”

“It’s Friday.”

“You said…you said you’ll take me out this week.”

The man made a face. “Aww, Neeks. That was before you attacked that girl on the street last Saturday. I had hell of a time cuz of that. Maybe later.”

“But you said-“

“You tried to get me just now.” The man flicked at several beads at his Adam’s apple; beads that belonged to a rosary.

“It’s been too long, it’s harder to concentrate. I just get… washed away.”

The man frowned and made to grasp the figure’s arms. The figure jerked quickly out of the way, then watching the man’s face, held out its arms reluctantly.

Bite marks, interlaced with several deep grooves of scratches adorned them, some still raw and red.

“Nico-“

The figure flinched at the word, and the man, after some hesitation, rolled up his left sleeve and thrust the arm out. There were bite marks there as well, though none very new.

“Not too much okay?”

But the figure had already fallen on the bit of flesh. After half a minute of nearly inaudible sucking, the man said,” That’s it, stop.”

The figure didn’t move. “Nico, stop.” The man jerked his arm towards himself and the figure raised its head, teeth bared and eyes feral. “Nico,” the man said in a warning tone. Slowly, the arm was released.

“See?” The man said. “Much more control than last time. You’ll be able to go out regularly in no time. Let’s just not risk it too soon.”

“…next week, then?”

“Yeah, sure.” The man smiled. “If you behave next week, we’ll go to the arcade. Just don’t hurt yourself again. I hate thinking of you sitting here alone in the dark doing nothing but that. Hey, what about-,” the man reached over to the bedside table for a stack of cards lying on top of them. “Did you try these out? You got how to play by yourself, right?”

“Yeah.” The man didn’t hide his disappointment at the less than enthusiastic tone. “They’re fun,” the figure said quickly. “I like them.”

Someone halfway intuitive would have doubted the truth of the words, but the man smiled. “I knew you would.” He stood up. “It’s too late today, but let’s play video games tomorrow, okay? All morning. Promise me you won’t try to get out through the window again?”

“Promise.”

“And you won’t try to get at Annie?”

“No.”

The man tousled the figure’s black mane of hair affectionately, and went to the door. “Do you need to use the bathroom again?” He asked before he opened the door. There was a marker drawn cross on the doorknob, and rosary beads tied up around them.

“No, I’m okay.”

“Are you hungry? You haven’t eaten since the day before yesterday, have you?”

“I’m fine. I just did, didn’t I.”

“Okay,” the man smiled, before opening the door and leaving.

The figure on the bed watched the cards the man had left on the bed. They were well-worn, by obviously different hands. It picked them up and thumbed through the thick, colored pieces, and studied the faces on them; Cyclops, Empousa, Sophrosyne, Eros, Akhlys…

It went through all the cards, and then sat watching the door, or more specifically, the light framing it. Finally it stood and went to the door, near the hinges. “Percy?” It said, in little more than a whisper. The sound of laughter and joking voices could be heard outside; one male, one female.

The figure stood there until the light disappeared from the crack of the door. When it did the figure went to the side of the bed to scoop up the grass fragments with its hands and knelt, pushing them under the bed. Outside, the sounds retreated to another room, and were replaced by heavy breathing and moaning, too quiet to be heard by anyone human. The figure stood up and sucked the cuts on its hands, listening. Then it sat on the bed and turned off the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notice: This fic will be on hiatus for a month.
> 
> I'll be leaving for Italy in a few days, and won't be able to update this story till mid August. I had meant to wrap up most of the drama before I left- that's why the updates were so frequent for the last week (and also why the last three chapters were so bad- I can't read chapter 9 and 10 without cringing), but alas, that is not to be. At least you'll have the satisfaction of imagining me at the Vatican, thinking of homicidal vampires and necrophilic boy on boy sex.
> 
> I'm sorry for the hiatus, and many, many thanks to everyone who's commented/kudosed. Especially you commenters- virtual hugs and kisses to y'all.  
> See you in August!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I lied. I'm a month overdue. Other authors seem to blame real life in occasions like this, but no, I'm just really lazy. I am sorry.

Later, Will would prefer to imagine that what he did, he did because he was thinking of Nico. But it wasn’t true- what drove him to push off the wolf by its muzzle was much more instinctual.

The wolf must have let itself be pushed back, or else it was taken aback by Will’s utter stupidity, because Will’s noodly arms were certainly no match for the pure pile of muscle that was the wolf- the wolf that had managed to break down his door latch in just two blows. As it was, Will was suddenly left free to breathe and wonder why on earth he retained all his lesser body parts, such as his hands.

The shock passed in a few seconds, and it occurred to him to do something about the situation. “He’s not dangerous, this isn’t what you think,” he said, pushing himself up. He tried to jump to his feet, found that he was numb everywhere, and sort of crawled to his feet instead.

The black-haired man’s eyes didn’t leave Nico. “I know he looks harmless, but you don’t know what you’re dealing with. Get back.”

“No, that guy,” Will gestured towards the body on the coffee table. “Nico didn’t kill him to eat. He uh, killed him for us.”

“What?”

“We needed a dead body, so Nico killed him.”

The man finally looked towards Will, incredulous and suddenly more hostile. “You made Nico kill for you?”

Will caught sight of Kayla face-palming. He looked over to Lou and Cecil for assistance, and saw them very helpfully still cowering under the coffee table.

Will swallowed a cussword blossoming from the tip of his tongue. “No, uh sir. Look, we’re med students.”

The introduction never did have quite the effect he imagined, and this was no exception, but he plowed on nonetheless. “We needed a cadaver, to practice on, not anything illegal, mind you, and Nico might have heard and misinterpreted the situation. So yeah, no bloodthirsty vampire in this room-“

“No, don’t say the b-word,” the man said urgently, but turned his focus back on Nico, and studying him, put the crucifix back in slowly. Then he walked towards Nico.

Will lurched forward to stop him from, say, protruding a stake from somewhere, but the man did something unexpected. He hugged Nico.

Nico made a small sound of protest inside the folds of the man’s jacket and grumbled, “Percy-“

“You left a note! A note! Seriously, Neeks? _Goodbye, thanks for everything. Don’t look for me?_ Could you _be_ more generic and cliché?”

Nico stopped grumbling, though he did keep trying to push the man off. “You’ve lived with us for what, four years, and you run off like that? That’s how little you think of me and Annabeth?”

Percy let go off the hug, and then proceeded to search over Nico, ignoring his scowls. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“No, I’m fine.“

Percy looked quizzically at Nico’s hickey, and Will cursed himself for about the dozenth time that night.

The wolf gently snuck in between the two, and jumped on Nico, lifting its huge paws on Nico’s shoulders. Any human would have been knocked over, but Nico stood his ground and patted its back twice. “Yeah, good to see you too, Jason.”

“What,” Percy pouted. “I don’t get a hello? I’ve been looking for you for months! I haven’t been to work in _weeks_! I’ve used all of my vacations _and_ sick leaves coming here.”

The wolf gave him a look that was, impossibly enough, reproachful.

There was a huge sneeze. “Sorry. I’m allergic to dogs,” Cecil said, who, along with Lou, had gotten out when the hugfest started.

Percy kicked at the wolf. “Come on, introduction’s in order.”

Will had expected it this time, but the warp of space still was jarring. Limbs contorted, hair disappeared, and hence after there was more man flesh in the room than before.

Will supposed nudity would be much less of a case for embarrassment when the audience was of another species. He should have looked away, but Will found his eyes glued. Jason looked to be in his early 20s and had Nordic coloring, just like himself, and he looked pretty much exactly like what prepubescent Will had wrongly envisioned his growth spurt to result in. Tall, broad-shouldered and extremely fit, Jason looked like either an underwear model or a superhero.

Jason caught Will staring, and too late, he looked away, trying to stop himself heating up from Jason’s small chuckle. But not everyone was appreciative. Percy scrunched his eyes and made a show of gauging them out. “Eww eww eww, man! I told you last time, go to the bathroom or something.”

“And I told you last time, I don’t like tiled floors, my paws slip.”

Percy threw him the messenger bag, still miming blindness. “No, you’re just a perv who likes to flash everyone.” Jason caught the bag, pulled out a purple t-shirt and a pair of khakis, and dressed. He looked mildly amused. “And you’re just jealous. I saw you peeking the first fifty times.”

Kayla cleared her throat. Percy looked at her and said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you. We might have scared off your pizza guy, sorry.”

 

“So,” Lou said, who was still staring at Jason’s lower half, as if she could see him underneath the clothes. “Would you like to sit down?”

“I see Nico’s been in good hands,” Percy said, when the relevant parties had been introduced, the murder justified, and misunderstandings resolved, rather in the manner of old whodunit novels. He tousled Nico’s hair, whom he’d dragged down to sit next to him on the couch. They had brought out the rest of the kitchen chairs, and were all sitting around the coffee table, the dead body on display like some ultra-expensive modern art. “Except for his, I mean.” He gestured at the body with his other hand.

Nico scowled and swatted at Percy’s hand, though he did look guilty. “How did you even find me?”

“Never underestimate my nose, Nico,” Jason said.

Nico cussed. Percy tutted in an overly annoying, universal ‘big brother’ tone, and Nico rolled his eyes with all the impatience of someone who’s been a teenager for nearly a century.

“I sniffed around after Percy called, and I thought I nearly found you. But then I lost your trail for months, until a couple days ago.”

“I was dead,” Nico said flatly.

“Yeah, I thought that must have been it,” Jason said thoughtfully. “Percy got on leave a few weeks ago. He’s been shacking up with me since then, trying to find you.”

“What about Annabeth?” Nico said sharply. “You left her alone?”

“Don’t worry, Sally’ll be there if anything goes wrong.”

Nico frowned. “You shouldn’t have come looking for me.”

“And what was I supposed to do,” Percy said heatedly. “I was worried, Neeks. Don’t you get that?” Nico tried to scowl, but Will, watching him closely from a kitchen chair, caught a glimmer of hope there, and saw Nico’s gaze flickering at Percy’s face. “I was so sure you’d relapsed,” Percy continued, however, and Nico’s face turned instantly sore.

“Yes, that’s what you’re worried about, aren’t you? What have you been doing, watching the missing persons list?” Nico said coldly, and Will, watching him hide the hurt look in his face, all of a sudden understood, with a burning hot flare inside him, why Nico had refused to mention Percy in his recounts, even why Nico might have run in the first place.

The moment it hit, everything became too obvious, though most of it were probably of Will’s own paranoia; Nico’s assumption of Kayla and his relationship, his near masochistic willingness to go along with Will’s affections, his constant need to be reassured that he was wanted.

Percy only looked confused. Jason, however, seemed to understand. “No, we were worried about _you_. That’s what friends do when you go missing.”

“Like hell you were,” Nico muttered, “With you and your support groups. You were just worried I’d relapse and you’d lose a member.” But his words had much less heat addressing Jason than they did addressing Percy.

“Support group?” Will asked, jumping for a chance to interfere, mostly because the way Nico cast sidelong glances at Percy twisted his guts.

Jason brightened instantly. He dug in the messenger bag and took out some pamphlets, which he handed to Will and his friends. Will read the words on his. ‘ _Humans are friends, not food!_ ’

“Our base is here in California, at San Francisco Bay,” Jason said. “We help out with rehabilitation, coming out, self-identification, and promoting social equality for the existentially challenged. There are ally meetings every other Tuesday, if you’re interested.”

“Uh, sure.” Will said, overwhelmed by Jason’s eager, encouraging face. As Jason explained to them with gusto the Undead Youth Group’s goals and ideals where he was apparently something like head counselor, he saw Percy pull Nico apart, chastising him some more about running away from home.

From what he garnered, what Jason did boiled down to him recruiting Undeads, swearing them to sobriety, and trying to make sure they stayed that way. Nico and Percy, he had met in the same fashion, after Nico had started living with Percy, and had struck up a rapport with the two.

Will tried to listen, he really did, but Nico kept shooting Percy these resenting, needy glances, and he couldn’t look away from him any more than a kid could look away from a needle breaking his skin.

“If you trust him, why did you think he’s been running around killing people all this time?” Will asked, a bit of his resentment seeping in.

“I do trust him,” Jason said, frowning slightly. “Percy tries too, but he’s the one who’s seen Nico at his worst, you know. It’s hard not to remember all that.”

“But-“ Will was realizing all of a sudden, how exactly little he knew about Nico, and here were two people in front of him who’d known him his entire Undead life. It was ridiculous to feel possessive of Nico over them. He was the intruder, not them.

That was all he was, really. Someone who found their little bro by accident- found, not _made_ , not _saved_ him, as Will liked to think, and then fucked said little bro to satiate his perversions. These two people had saved him, and had made him into a person. What claim did Will have to Nico by comparison?

When he turned his eyes away from Nico he found Jason studying him. Will recoiled internally at his gaze, but Jason gave him a knowing look that made him guess that though Percy himself might be oblivious, Nico really was as obvious as Will could see.

But the moment was broken by Kayla, who coughed angrily at the room at large. “Yes, this is all very nice, grand family reunion, return of the prodigal brother,” she said, rolling her eyes when she got their attention. “But does anyone remember that there is an actual corpse on my coffee table?”

She sounded slightly hysterical, and Will could not really blame her. On top of all of tonight’s excitement, Kayla had always been a bit of a clean freak. “Just get it out, will you?” she said, weakly.

“I’ll go put him back,” Nico said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Percy said, frowning. “I don’t want these guys getting involved by accident.”

“What then?”

Percy, Jason, and Nico started talking in private, and it occurred to Will that this might not the first time they’d had to take care of something like this.

“Yeah, I agree, I think it’s best we get rid of him properly,” Percy said.

Nico and Percy both looked at Jason. Will watched blankly, not understanding, until Jason made a face and said, “But I already ate!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got that Nemo reference?
> 
> Again, I apologise for the delay. It will be super awesome if you'd comment to tell me you're still reading this fic, thanks.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Involves Jason eating Bryce, but it's not desciptive at all, so I wouldn't worry.

Jason understandably requested privacy with his meal, and the rest of them retreated all too gladly to Kayla and Will’s room. He tugged at Nico, who, gallingly, seemed unwilling to leave Percy’s side, but Percy looked at Will instead and said pointedly, “Hey, can I have a word with you?” Nico looked back at Percy as he joined Will’s friends to Kayla’s room, and Will’s guts did another French twist.

“Nico told me you were the one who brought him back alive and gave him a place to stay,” Percy said, sitting in Will’s offered chair with the back to his front. “I just wanted to say- thanks, man.”

Nico wouldn’t have told Percy exactly how he’d been brought back alive, or what had transpired between him and Will during his stay. Will mustered the urge to tell him and said simply, “My pleasure.”

“People aren’t usually that ready to be nice to him, you know? Did you hear what that dead guy did to him?” Percy wrinkled his nose. It was really very unprofessional of him, as a police officer, to talk that way. But Will had always admired people whose personal loyalty came before other obligations, mostly because he suspected he wasn’t one of them. He tried not to dwell much on the fact; it was harder to hate someone when they were actually likable.

Will nodded. “You’re close to him, though, right? You’re the one who rescued Nico from the sewers, aren’t you?”

“Yup.” Percy popped his P. “One and only. Nico’s been living with me and my girlfriend in New York ever since. That is, until he decided to leave, obviously.” He frowned. “I really can’t imagine why he’d pull something like that.”

“Can’t you?” Will said, trying not to sound incredulous.

Percy shrugged. “I guess it’s something kids do. They want attention. They go through phases.”

Will had been more of a straight A, no toe out of the line sort of teenager, but he could imagine Percy as a troublemaker ten years prior. “Did you do something like that as a kid?”

“Me?” Percy made a mock-hurt face, then grinned. “Neh, I did a lot of things, but I never left home. My kid brother did something like that, though.”

“You have a brother?”

“Well, half-brother, but,” he rummaged inside his jacket. “Let me show you.”

From his wallet he took out a piece of paper which he unfolded to reveal a battered old photograph. “Tyson’s the one on the left. Uh, your left. My right.”

There was Percy in the middle, maybe 16 or 17, arms around two people standing next to him. To his left was a guy a few years older than him, staring a bit surprised at the camera, sporting a goatee and looking like the poster boy for stoners. To his right was a broad-shouldered boy with a wide smile on his round face. His facial features strongly indicated he had Down syndrome, and with his brown hair and eyes he looked nothing like Percy.

“Kids do a lot of stupid things,” Percy said, watching the picture, his face, for a second, rid of any hint of mirth. Then he brightened, and put the picture away. “I guess Nico was feeling a bit left out, what with the baby coming and all. I heard kids do that. Sibling jealousy, something like that.”

“The baby?”

“Yeah. My little Neeks is going to be a big brother!” He grinned broadly. “Or uncle?” He frowned slightly. “Neh, big brother seems about right. There was some complications with my girlfriend’s pregnancy, and Nico really wasn’t our top priority, you see. You get that, right?” He looked at Will, slightly aggrieved, as if he thought Will would blame him.

“Of course.”

Percy nodded. “When we get home I’m making sure Nico gets the attention he deserves.”

_When we get home_

On retrospect he should not have been surprised. It stood to reason that as Nico became real, the rest of reality would follow suit. What had he imagined, that he’d live with someone whom he’d just met?

But he’d thought Nico as his, with all the possessive selfishness that the thought entailed. It had not even occurred to him that Nico would have a life, an existence outside of Will’s cognizance. And yet here it was, proof that he had history and wants on his own, and he knew he could not fight against it.

When they got out, there was nothing left of the body except for the clothes and a wallet with the ID of one Bryce Lawrence.

“Let’s hope he’s not anyone famous,” Jason said, packing them up, looking disturbingly full.

“Is there anything else we can help you with?” Percy said.

Will watched Nico, who had his arms around himself, and had crept to Percy’s side like some shadow. “No,” he said, feeling hurt and resentful.

“What, no,” Cecil said. “We’re missing a cadaver. You said you’d be the first person to be suspected.”

Cecil explained the situation to Percy and Jason, and Jason assured them they’d take care of it.

“I guess this is it, then,” Percy announced. “Thanks again for taking care of our little bro.”

There was a ‘but’ on the tip of his tongue. Will only nodded. What was he to say, that he’d thought Nico would live with him like some stray he’d picked up?

He could see Lou and Cecil watching him, but he didn’t meet their eyes. He looked at Nico instead. If he could find a trace of indecision there, any sort of proof that Will meant something more to Nico than a chance meeting and a rebound, he would still speak up.

Nico met his eyes. Will thought he could see guilt there, but he couldn’t be sure. Will felt his throat constrict.

“Call me,” he blurted out. “We can skype, or… wait, do you even know how to do that? No? Okay, then, just… call me.”

Ignoring Percy’s pleased exclamation of ‘oh, looks like you made a friend, Neeks,” he went to retrieve a pen. His friends looked at him rather pityingly when he returned, but he looked only at Nico. “Promise me you’ll call me,” he said, searching his face.

Nico nodded. His arm, when Will held it to write on it, was cool and hard, and reminded him of ivory keys of pianos. He found he didn’t want to let go of it.

It wasn’t just his arm either. Nico was too close now, and he longed to hold his face in his hand, and as Nico tilted his chin upwards, Will was again enraptured at how callow and distant and otherworldly it was, and he was hit with an internal gyrating force that broke down his resentment and jealousy. In his momentary confusion, he felt compelled to breach the distance, as if just as kissing Nico had brought life to him, kissing him again would dispel it- _life_ , all the irrelevant little details of it, all that that should not have been important but still managed to be.

Then Nico lowered his eyes, and the moment was broken. He contented himself with a hug instead. He knew, though he hated to admit it, that kissing Nico right now would essentially be a show for Percy, and he was not that petty or self-assured a person to gloat over what little power he had. And even he were, he knew Nico would hate to be seen like that, and the possibility of Nico turning his head away was too devastating for him to risk it.

And then he released him, and heard the goodbyes on either side without really hearing it, and as everything passed in a whirl of frustration, Nico was the only thing in clarity, eyes leaving him, turning away, then gone with a click of the door.

“So, I guess this means I can’t tell the joke with the vampire and the used tampon?” Lou said timidly.

Cecil and Kayla groaned, but Will was too drained to do anything but let his head hang and smell the chloroform lingering on his clothes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The punchline to Lou's joke is 'A teabag'. I'm sure you can figure out the details yourself. 
> 
> Short chapter, I know, sorry. The next one will be longer. Talk to me about how much this chapter sucked?


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What rhymes with killer and starts with an f?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry. I've been busy.

 It was in one moment surprising, then in another not, how quickly things returned to normal. The classroom lock turned out to have been busted overnight, and the missing cadaver was easily written off as a college prank, despite the dubious claims of people seeing a large dog in the medical wing. Group no. 13 was disbanded and the students were dispersed to other tables. Soon, there was no proof at all of any anomaly ever having existed anywhere, except for the clumps of grey hair that could be found under the couch at various unsuspecting moments. And with Kayla’s vigorous vacuuming, even that was gone in a few weeks.

 On the whole, Will thought he was fairing quite well. There was absolutely no reason at all for his friends to cast those annoyingly pitying looks at him whenever they thought he wasn’t looking. It was possible he was imagining all that anyhow. Lack of sleep tended to do that to you. And there was even less of a reason for Kayla to bust into his room like this and take away his energy drinks, as he told her himself, quite crossly.

 “Yes, there is,” she said. “You’re not supposed to drink half a dozen Red Bulls in just one night.”

“You can lecture me about health when you get an actual license.”

“Will,” Kayla said in her most annoying mama-Kayla voice. “When’s the last time you had an actual good night’s sleep?”

“Uh, yesterday?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did,” Will said, eyes returning to his book. Kayla slammed the pages shut, effectively trapping his forefinger. Will groggily registered the pain.

“Will, I could hear you from my room. You were up till at least four.”

“This breaches our privacy agreement.”

 “We never had any privacy agreement.”

Will frowned. “Well, we should.”

 “Yes. Whatever. After you get some sleep.”

 “We have a quiz.”

 “We always have a quiz. And we have two days left. Get some sleep.”

Will was still looking down. He said nothing for nearly half a minute during which Kayla must have assumed he’d fallen asleep in his chair, because she tapped him roughly on his shoulder to wake him up. “I’m exhausted,” Will said slowly, to which Kayla said nothing. “Sleeping won’t help,” he continued.

“Let’s get you up,” she said, and pulled him bodily from his chair. He let her lead him to the bed. “Sleep,” Kayla said as she left him.

And he did.

 

 The next day he had expected Kayla to be there on the couch, ready to admonish him about his life and everything in it, but he had not expected Lou Ellen bustling about the kitchen.

“Uh, what’s she doing here?” he asked, going to sit next to Kayla. “At 9am?”

”I have herbal tea,” Lou announced. “And candles.”

Kayla flicked the remote. “I called Cecil because I figured he’d be better at me at talking about _feelings_ but I got Lou for some reason.” She said _feelings_ as if it were something particularly disdainful. “And now she’s here.” She shrugged.

Will asked over the back of the couch. “Why do you have Cecil’s phone?”

 “Why do we do anything at all, when our very existence is meaningless and our every desires will wash away in the great expanse of time and space?”

 “It’s much too early for this, Lou.”

 “You know how I sleep with my mouth open? Cause I had braces for years? Anyway Cecil did this thing where he stuck a bunch of stuff in my mouth and took pictures and threatened to post them-“

 “I’m sorry I asked.”

 “Anyway, I’m here now.” Lou said, carrying over two mugs in her hand. “Which is great for you, cuz I’m an expert in handling relationship problems.” Kayla snorted into the mug that was handed to her. “Uh, I took a psychology course in interpersonal relationships during premed and _aced_ it. I’m certified." Lou Ellen’s gleeful grin was unnerving.

 “Glad to be of service as a lab rat.”

“You’re welcome,” she said smugly. She squeezed between them on the couch, nearly upsetting Kayla’s mug. “Now talk.”

“About what?” He said, in a feeble attempt to delay the inevitable.

“How you’re pining after your boy toy like a female ferret in heat.”

Will had been preparing a monologue about how stressing schoolwork was nowadays. It took him a second to regain his train of thought.

“Uh… what? I..?”

“Female ferrets,” Lou said impatiently, as if he were the one being weird and spouting nonsensical zoological references. “Google it later.”

“I think what Lou means to say is,” Kayla cut in just as impatiently. “You haven’t been yourself lately, and I think we all know why.”

 “There’s just too much to study,” he said. “I haven’t been handling things very well. You know how it is, Immunology and hematology’s a bitch.”

“A giant, 250 pound rabid bitch with really big teeth that was supposed to have been shot down years ago but wasn’t and grew up to eat little babies,” Lou agreed.

“Yeah, exactly. Uh.. I guess. Remember when we thought memorizing all the names of the bones in a day was hard?” They all laughed. Which in retrospect was pathetic for several reasons.

 “I mean, it’s one thing to memorize stuff and another to memorize nonsense words that all sound identically like German cusswords,” Lou Ellen said

 “I know, makes you wish you had magic powers that lets you read and write ancient Greek or something.”

“Seriously? You’re wishing for magic powers and you choose lame ass language skills of all things?” Lou Ellen looked personally affronted.

“Healing powers, then. So I wouldn’t have to study at all,” Will amended. “What would you choose?”

“Hmmm. Something involving pigs. I like pigs.”

 “You like bacon. I’ve seen you eat bacon.”

 “Pigs are beautiful in any form.”

 “Sorry to be a bore, but Lou, you were here for a reason?”

 Lou Ellen laughed hysterically, to Will’s amusement and Kayla’s disgust. She stopped laughing when she realized no one was joining in. “Bore? Like boar? Kayla made a pig joke.”

 “No, I didn’t,” said Kayla muttered.

 “Okay. Yes. Getting back on track. What is happening, Will? Did your boy toy not invite you for Christmas?” She gasped. “Did he break up with you?”

 “Uh, no. And please don’t call him my boy toy. I feel old and pervy.”

 “That’s because you _are_ old and pervy, Will. But seriously, what’s wrong?”

Will took a sip of his tea, trying to delay answering, and spluttered. “Lou, what is this? It tastes like horse hair.”

Lou gave him a wink that did nothing to appease his stomach. “Old family recipe, Will. Basically, I’m not going anywhere until you either finish it or finish talking. Works like a charm.”

Will sighed. “Remind me why we’re friends again?”

 “Because we’re all too busy to spend time with other people, duh.” She snapped her fingers. “Now talk.”

 Will took a deep breath. “I thought he really liked me, you know? He went on about being part of my life or whatever it was, but just like that, boom, he’s out of my life. I don’t know what happened, and I’m worried sick even though I know he’s probably fine and I keep thinking about how things could have been different and I don’t know… I just wish I could talk to him because-“

 “Wait,” intercepted Kayla with narrowed eyes. “Are you saying he hasn’t called you back? Not once?”

 “No,” he said. That sounded pathetic to his own ears. He went for a shrug. “Pretty dramatic one night stand, huh?” Both his friends looked taken aback.

 “At least it’s all for the better, Will,” Kayla patted his shoulder. “Vampires, werewolves, _murder,_ those aren’t things you should wish upon yourself. I mean, what good could come of it?”

 “What? What are you saying, Kay? Will, you’re supposed to be Bella! I was freakin counting on it! That thing last month was the most interesting that has happened to me all semester. You’re sitting on your ass, wondering why he won’t call? When you meet a hot vampire, you don’t let go, you hold onto him by your teeth if you have to!”

 “Well, what am I supposed to do?” Will said, unable to hide his irritation. “I don’t have his number. I don’t know anything about him but literally his name.”

 “Hmm... wonder what I can do with a name.”

 “Are you going to do something illegal?”

 “Leave it to us, kiddo.”

 “I’m not going to help with anything, Lou,” Kayla said.

 “Leave it to me and Cecil, kiddo.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, anyone still reading this? Tell me what you think is gonna happen, guys, because I barely even remember what I planned anymore. Comment, and I'll tell you a weird animal sex trivia.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this may be my least favorite chapter so far... but it's necessary, I suppose.

 Will had to scroll up a bit to find the text he was looking for, courtesy of Lou text bombing him after the initial one. He hadn’t read the more recent ones, and he scanned through them to see they were as he’d expected, in other words, Lou asking about his still non-existent love life- or rather, demanding to know about it. She might have had her faults, but she sure was persistent.

 The phone beeped at that thought, and sure enough, it was Lou Ellen texting again.

  **(11:46) sooooooo???????**

**(11:46) did u call him?????**

  _Shouldn’t you be_ _paying attention can you afford another d?,_ he texted back.

  **(11:47) haha fuck u**

 Will put his phone back in his pocket and tried to concentrate on the professor informing them of the many names of bacteria and how it was supposed to matter in any way possible. Unfortunately he wasn’t quite sold, and he found his attention wavering after a few minutes. He shouldn’t have let it, because it kept wandering towards a well-trodden path.

 No, this was stupid. This was exactly like last night. Will knew what sort of person he was, at least what sort of person he and others thought he was, and he was going to be laid back. He’d wing it, and everything would turn out great.

 His phone buzzed again.

 But the truth was, he couldn’t really fool himself. He was optimistic, not stupid, and he was smart enough to know what kind of a situation he was in, if not how to get out of it. How did he call someone he barely even knew, who obviously wanted nothing from him? ‘You were fine approaching him before,’ said a voice in his head that sounded somewhat like Kayla. So was that it? A fear of rejection, as cliché and trivial as it sounded? To a point, he supposed that yes, that was it all along. Even before Lou Ellen had texted him the Jackson residence’s number the day before yesterday, he had done nothing to get himself out of the situation.

He had had no comfort in imagining that Nico had lost his number somehow. It wasn’t as if Nico sweated, or could have washed it off by mistake. And it wasn’t as if something could have happened to him. That was the whole point of immortality, wasn’t it?

Still, he supposed he was thankful for Lou and Cecil’s interfering. Cecil in particular had looked incredibly proud of himself as he described the surprisingly tame process of Facebook stalking, then the quasi-legal accessing of the NYPD police force staff list and the definitely not legal fraud he’d pulled to get the number. (Couldn’t you have just asked him through Facebook messaging, he’d asked. Cecil had looked dumbstruck at this revelation. What’s the fun in that, Lou had said.)

The more he thought about it, however, his reasons for dawdling seemed progressively less rational. Thus, he decided to do the logical thing and direct his energy into something more productive. In other words, planning his phone conversation with Nico word for word.

_It’s me, Will._

_Oh… I’m so sorry, Will. I wanted to call you back, but I needed time… to sort my feelings out._

_What feelings?_ He’d ask, feigning ignorance, because he obviously did not know at all how Nico figured out that he wanted Will instead of Percy.

  _It doesn’t matter anymore, I miss you so much. Take me home._

And then Will does, and they live happily ever after because Will was sleep deprived and delusional. All his mental thoughts sounded like that of a preteen. Absently, Will wondered if that was such a bad thing, all things considered.

 Was that a creepy thought? It was getting harder to tell.

Will sank down an inch deeper into his chair and watched yet another close up picture of a bacteria, wishing he were infected with every single one of the stuff. Except for that Marburg thing- that looked too painful.

===

 As it turned out, Will might have been better off not obsessively planning his phone conversation. Because that was the reason why he was taken aback at the voice that answered his call.

 “Uhh,” Will stuttered stupidly.

 “Yes?” said the obviously female voice.

Will’s brain came back online belatedly. “Oh, you’re Percy’s girlfriend.”

 “Yes, and that’s exactly how I want to be acknowledged.”

 “Sorry, Ms… Chase.” The lack of a sarcastic comeback assured him that she was indeed the Chase part of the ‘Chase and Jackson’s‘, as the machine had put it. “I’m Will, Will Solace. I don’t know if Nico’s told you about me, but I met him and Percy a while ago, and I just wanted to see how they were doing, and uh, say hi.”

 “Call me Annabeth. And, no, Nico hasn’t mentioned you.”

 “Oh.” Before he had time to fully perceive what the tight feeling that had emerged in the back of his throat was, Annabeth added quickly, “But Percy has. I heard you were quite… _charitable_ to Nico.”

 Will coughed. “He… what did he say, exactly?”

 “Nothing he didn’t understand.” Her tone was not disapproving, but it was too deliberate for him to doubt the meaning of her words.

 “Yeah… anyway, I was wondering if I could talk to Nico?’

 “Sure, let me,” there was a long pause. “No, actually, Nico’s sleeping right now.” Will could tell she was lying, moreover, he was left with the impression that he was meant to know it. Nobody sounded that strained and awkward when they meant to hide it.

 “Oh.” He realized his fingers were gripping the phone too tightly. He willed himself to relax, pushing away the image of Nico frantically shaking his head at Annabeth and backing away. “Isn’t it like nine thirty over there? I would have thought he’d be awake by now.”

 “He’s tired, I suppose. We had movie night yesterday.”

 “All right then. Maybe he can call me later on, he has my number.” He hoped he sounded calm, or at halfway normal, because something was curdling inside and dying.

 “Yes, I’ll tell him you called.” And Will must not have sounded chill at all, as there was something like a small, contained sigh at the other end, and Annabeth asked, “How much are you willing to see him?”

===

 Kayla was a different person from Lou, which meant she did not pounce on him the moment he came out of his room. Instead she waited until he was sitting on the couch and staring unseeingly at the TV screen to get out a tub of ice cream and a spoon, which was the unhealthiest ‘I told you so’ gesture he had ever received. Actually… he turned it over to see the label saying ‘Sugar-free! Low-fat!’.

 “I take that back,” he muttered.

 “Sorry?” said Kayla, breaking off from her monologue of telling him, yet again, how he was actually better off getting dumped by Nico.

 “Did you actually get this just to feed me?”

 “You’re welcome. Save some for my period next week, will you?”

 Will swallowed down a biting comment. He didn’t even know he had that in him. “Did you maybe consider the fact that things might have, you know, worked out?”

 Kayla raised an eyebrow. “Well if that’s what happened, you sure don’t look happy about it.”

"I didn't.." he had meant to whine about how he never even got to talk to Nico, but he was suddenly feeling rebellious. It wasn't as if Kayla looked particularly smug, but her matter-of-fact attitude was grating on him. Perhaps it shone light on how ridiculous a notion his fantasies were, however close he was to abandoning them. "Actually, I got invited over this weekend."

Kayla's incredulous look almost managed to lift his spirit.

**Author's Note:**

> Questions? Comments? Tell me what you think!


End file.
